English Vacation
by MBP (MBPMW@aol.com)
On vacation with his parents, Jimmy proves a widely-held theory


In the rented car driven by his dad, Jimmy O’Neill felt the tension of London leave his 
16-year-old body.  London was fun for awhile.  Jimmy loved listening to the English 
accents; had enjoyed Picadilly Circus, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace, and had cried at 
the memorial for Princess Diana.  But Jimmy was from a small town in Ohio and became 
more and more uncomfortable with the big city crowds.  Two weeks was an eternity to 
spend in London, and as his family traveled North on the A-10 past Ware, Jimmy felt at 
peace.

A half-hour later, the O’Neill family pulled up to their friend’s house where they were 
planning to spend the next week.  It wasn’t really a house, but an old cottage.  It had no 
backyard, but the house’s back door opened to an enormous meadow.  Jimmy wistfully 
watched the young people running and playing soccer.

The family entered and was greeted enthusiastically by their old friends.  Actually, 
Jimmy had never met them, but knew everything from his parent’s tales.  The two dads 
had met when they both worked in Chicago.  The Lothridge’s relocated to England when 
Jimmy was a baby, and the two families hadn’t seen one another since.  As the adults 
joyously hugged and kissed, Jimmy noticed the daughter.  He knew of Rita.  She was 12 
and from what Jimmy could see, a basic young English girl.  It was pretty amusing; 
Jimmy felt that if five English girls and five American girls were anonymously thrown 
together into a room, he could pick out each girl’s nationality.  Rita was slim, cute and 
had light-brown hair.  So did thousands of American girls.  But there was something that 
Jimmy couldn’t define that indicated Rita was English-born.  He nodded at the pre-teen, 
who nodded back.

After introductions and a light lunch, Rita quickly excused herself to go play with her 
friends.  Bored already with the adult conversation,  Jimmy waited a few minutes, and 
then followed Rita out the back door into the field.  Rita had not gone far from the house.  
She and two of her friends were situated in a triangle, dribbling and passing a soccer ball 
among them.  Jimmy quietly watched for awhile and was impressed with the skills of the 
girls.  Although Jimmy was very athletic, he played the basic American sports: football 
(not soccer), baseball and basketball.  Some of his friends played organized soccer and 
Jimmy occasionally got into a pick-up game with them.  Jimmy wasn’t bad for a novice, 
but the girls were at least as talented as his friends.  He wandered over to join the girls.

Rita saw Jimmy coming and smartly headed the ball his way.  Jimmy caught it, which 
elicited a chuckle from the girls.  They came over to meet him.  Diana was the smaller 
one; she was almost a carbon copy of Rita, except she was a little shorter.  Margaret was 
their opposite: tall, curvy,  a redhead and already developing.  Jimmy thought she was 
very beautiful, but obviously (and unfortunately) much too young for him.  Margaret 
asked Jimmy if he played football (soccer) and he replied “a little.”  The foursome 
decided to play games rotating partners.  The game winner was the first team with five 
goals.  Jimmy and Diana were to team the first game.

Jimmy considered the situation.  The girls were much, much better at soccer.  But he was 
older, bigger, faster and stronger.  He knew, from embarrassing experience, that sheer 
power and speed sometimes overcame experience with a sport.  When Jimmy was 12, he 
played a lot of handball.  He haunted the courts, and after awhile, Jimmy was good 
enough to even beat some of the boys who were a year or two older than him.  He 
boasted about his handball prowess to his dad, who came to watch him play.  Eventually, 
Jimmy played against his dad, who ran Jimmy off the court.  Although the elder O’Neill 
didn’t have much handball experience, he was too strong and fast for his son, and beat 
him badly.  This lesson in humility was a great teacher, and Jimmy knew that his size, 
speed and strength would help him overcome the girls greater soccer skills of the girls.  
Jimmy discussed strategy with Diana, and they decided on a series of long passes to 
Jimmy.  He would simply outrun his opponent and Diana would get him the ball, and 
Jimmy would score before the others had a chance to recover.  Diana thought the strategy 
somewhat dubious, but went along with it.  The match started.

It was 4-0 in the third (and final) game.  Jimmy’s team was losing again.  He was paired 
with Margaret against the two smaller girls.  It was just as much a slaughter as the first 
two games had been.  Jimmy’s teams had scored all of one goal.  That was by Rita, who 
had superbly dribbled through and around the other girls to get her teams only goal.

The strategy had failed.  Miserably.  Diana had kicked some solid long passes for Jimmy 
to run under, but by the time Jimmy got control of the ball, either Margaret or Rita had 
caught up and easily stolen the ball.  Jimmy was able to outrun the two of them, but not 
by enough to give him the edge.  The problem was, no other method worked.  The girls 
soon discovered that all they had to do was double team Jimmy’s partner.  If she passed 
the ball to Jimmy, it was a simple matter for them to steal it.  If not, it was 2-on-1.  

Jimmy’s strength advantage hadn’t helped him.  In soccer, one cannot really body his/her 
opponents legally.  Still, Jimmy had tried pushing the girls while he attempted to control 
the ball.  The girls had fine balance; they resisted easily and Jimmy couldn’t push and 
dribble at the same time.  So that hadn’t worked either.

Jimmy did his best on defense.  He was big, and got in the way of his opponent.  He 
learned not to try to steal the ball, because this would allow the girls to easily evade his 
clumsy steal attempt and get around him.  Jimmy’s best asset was to stay in front and use 
his body to block any shot attempts or passes.  He was reasonably adept at this, but 
because his team could muster no offense, the girls team easily won. 

Rita kicked the ball between Jimmy’s legs to score the winning goal for her team.  After 
congratulations all around, Rita went into her house and brought out a pitcher of 
lemonade with four glasses.  They went to a picnic bench, and the foursome (mostly 
Jimmy) recovered and refreshed.  It was Rita who observed “that study must be correct.”

Everyone wanted to know which study she meant.  So Rita told them.  “In athletic class, 
our athletic master told us that there was a study done which showed that English 
(European) girls were stronger and in better shape than their American male 
counterparts.  The girls were more able to perform the exercises in the study.”  Margaret 
and Diana nodded.

Jimmy knew of the study.  Actually, it was funny.  Early in the every school year, the 
school football (American) coach would come in and rant and rave about how the 
European girls were stronger than them, and what wimps they were, and how they should 
come out for the school football team which would make men out of them.  Mr. Caruso’s 
speech always made Jimmy chuckle.  But Jimmy knew other factors in the study.  “You 
know, Rita, the study supposedly shows that the average European girl is in better shape 
than the average American boy OF THE SAME AGE.  And it only works for children up 
to the age of 12.  Once they get older, the boys surpass the girls.”

Diana chimed in.  “I don’t know, Jimmy, you look winded while we’re still fresh.  Maybe 
the study works for teenage boys also.”

“That’s true” noted Jimmy, who had taken a while to catch his breath.  “But you girls are 
used to playing soccer and I’m not.  And there is no way that any of you are close to 
being as strong as me.  Maybe not even all three of you together.”

“When you were trying to control the ball and push us at the same time” said Rita, her 
green eyes twinkling, “you didn’t seem so strong.  I can probably defeat you in arm-
wrestling.”  Margaret and Diana giggled at the thought.

“C’mon now Rita.  Let’s be serious.  I know you’re 12.  And you can’t be more than 75 
pounds.  I’m more than double your weight.  I could beat you with my one arm against 
both of yours, easily.”  The giggling girls added a touch of nastiness to his tone.

“Why don’t we try it, my two arms against your one.”  Rita put her arms on the picnic 
table.

Jimmy flexed his reasonably muscular right biceps.  “You’re on” he exclaimed and put 
his arm on the table.  The other girls agreed to be judges.

The competitors clasped right hands (in the usual wrist-wrestling, not the older arm-
wrestling position) and Rita added her left hand to the top of the pile.  At Margaret’s 
“go”,  the boy and girl began arm-wrestling.

Jimmy pulled hard, but barely succeeded in moving both of Rita’s arms.  Her right arm 
appeared to be well-anchored by her left hand, and she held Jimmy pretty well to the 
starting position.  Jimmy was impressed by Rita’s strength.  He had play arm-wrestled 
with some of the girls back home, and although 4 years older than Rita, none of the girls 
had been able to win even with both arms.  Rita’s right arm was slim but well-muscled 
for such a young girl.  Not bodybuilder muscle, but still solid definition.  Her arm still 
paled in comparison to Jimmy’s much larger one.  But he still couldn’t make any 
headway.

As Jimmy was straining and trying his hardest, he heard Diana and Margaret giggling 
again.  He looked back down at their position and was amazed to find that Rita had 
released her left hand and was locked against Jimmy with only her one, slim arm.  Not 
only that, but Rita began moving Jimmy to her side of the table.  With only the one, slim 
arm.  Alarmed, Jimmy looked up at Rita, who was grinning.  They continued to pull, and 
the tiny 12-year-old girl slowly but surely moved the older boy’s hand towards defeat.  In 
certain situations, near defeat would have made Jimmy try that much harder.  But he was 
too shocked to do anything, and Rita banged his right arm to the picnic table.

It was impossible, thought Jimmy.  He looked numbly at his hand still being securely 
pinned to the table by Rita’s much smaller hand.  He had just lost an arm-wrestling match 
to a little girl.  All of his strength left him, and his humiliation ended up like a rock in his 
stomach.  Jimmy could barely breathe.     

“Are you okay?” asked a suddenly concerned Rita.  She released Jimmy’s hand and ran 
around to the other side of the table.  “Just take it easy.”

Although what Rita was doing was very sweet, Jimmy would have none of it.  He roughly 
pushed Rita away from him, and staggered slowly to the house.  The girls let him go.  
They realized that his pride was hurt, and decided to leave him be.

That night at dinner, Jimmy said nothing, but his parents were too busy with their friends 
to notice.  And Jimmy noted gratefully that Rita said nothing.  Directly after dinner, 
Jimmy said he was tired from the trip, and went to his room.

After a couple of hours of thought, Jimmy emerged from his room and knocked quietly 
on Rita’s bedroom door.  At her invitation, Jimmy walked into her room and carefully 
shut the door.  Rita was in bed reading.  She was wearing a long, white tee-shirt that fit 
her dad, but on her it was a long nightgown.  Jimmy looked at Rita’s small body and slim 
legs and nearly turned around.  But he had decided to say something, so he did.

“Look, Rita, I’m sorry I acted the way I did.  I just never expected…”.  The words trailed 
off.

Rita was impressed that Jimmy had reacted this way.  He was a pretty good guy.  Some 
guys would never have talked to her again; others may have just been nasty, or attempted 
to attack her.  Jimmy was pretty mature…for a boy.  “It’s okay, Jimmy.  I understand.  
We all did.  I guess…”.  She didn’t have to finish the statement that losing to a smaller, 
younger girl must be pretty hard for a guy.

“I’d like to say sorry to Margaret and Diana.  Can we see them tomorrow so I can 
apologize?”

“Sure” Rita added with that twinkle in her eyes “maybe you can try fighting one of 
them.”  Jimmy smiled, which was the reaction Rita hoped for.  He really was a good guy.

The next morning, Rita was awakened by Jimmy banging on her door.  “C’mon 
downstairs, Rita.”  She ran downstairs and Jimmy was waiting for her in the living room.  

He said “my mom and dad went out with your parents to see the area.  Now that we’re 
alone, I was hoping for another match.”  Jimmy didn’t seem angry or agitated, just 
excited.

“Let me go to the bathroom, first, Jimmy.  I’ll be right back.”  Rita left and returned 
straight away.  She looked at Jimmy, and realized that he just enjoyed competing, and 
once he got over the shock, he wanted to try again.  “What do you have in mind?”

“I thought that we’d try wrestling instead.  If you don’t mind, of course.”  Jimmy felt that 
his weight advantage would make up for her stronger arms (amazing!).  He was wearing 
only a pair of shorts.  His chest was well-muscled and mostly hairless.  Jimmy was ready 
for action.

Rita eyed him for a second.  “I’ll go change and be right back.”  She returned in a couple 
of minutes wearing an exercise leotard.  “I’m ready to go.”  The two combatants 
immediately began moving around the living room, looking for an opening.

Jimmy allowed himself a moment to be amazed.  He was warily moving around about to 
go toe-to-toe with a slim, cute, pre-teenage girl who was more than a foot shorter and less 
than half his weight, as well as four years younger.  And who had beaten him in arm-
wrestling!  He lunged for Rita and managed to encircle his arms around her, trying to 
drag her to the floor.  Rita’s small body was solid, her soccer-trained legs were strong 
and well-balanced and Jimmy couldn’t pull her down.  While he was trying, Rita 
wrapped one of her legs around one of Jimmy’s and tripped him to the carpet.  The two 
fell in a heap and wrestled around on the floor for awhile, neither gaining an advantage.

It was Jimmy who made the first mistake.  He thought he saw an opening to get a 
headlock on Rita, but when Jimmy released her, Rita wrapped her legs around his head 
and locked her ankles.  The scissors hold was both painful and effective and Jimmy 
thrashed around, trying to unlock the legs.  He couldn’t do it, so he slid his arms between 
her legs, loosening the grip enough so it wasn’t so painful.  Jimmy couldn’t escape, but 
Rita couldn’t force a submission.  She finally released him, and grabbed his head with 
her slim, strong arms.  The headlock was painful, but Jimmy managed to keep moving 
and Rita couldn’t hold him.  She released him and they both scrambled to their feet.

Jimmy didn’t know what to do.  He was trying to figure out how to use his weight, but 
she had effectively countered his moves.  And he was a little tired; he suspected Rita 
wasn’t.  Feinting and yelling to distract her, Jimmy got behind Rita and put the little girl 
in a full-nelson, pushing down hard against the back of her head.  Jimmy got in very 
close to try to keep her strong arms immobilized.  Rita moved back and forth a bit, then 
began pulling her arms in different manners: hard, soft, a little, a lot, both arms at a time, 
then one at a time.  The inconsistency of her moves forced Jimmy to counter too many 
things and his hold loosened.  Quick as a flash Rita straightened her arms and dropped 
down, escaping, and in the same motion grabbed one of Jimmy’s arms and threw him 
over her shoulder.  As Jimmy landed with a thud on the carpet, Rita jumped on him and 
sat on his shoulders in a school-boy pin, attempting to force his arms to the floor.  Jimmy 
bucked wildly, but the tiny girl rode him like a bronco and Jimmy got tired.  With her 
legs securely attached to Jimmy’s side, Rita concentrated on pushing his arms down.  
And as with the arm-wrestling, Rita proved stronger.  Soon Jimmy was lying beneath the 
12-year-old, both his arms against the carpet.  He wasn’t going to escape.

The knock on the door startled Jimmy, but Rita expected it.  “Come in, girls” she said, 
and Diana and Margaret walked into the house.  The impressive sight of their slim, pretty 
friend pinning the handsome, big American boy made them both giggle, but Jimmy was 
well past the point of worrying about it.  He conceded to Rita, who immediately got off 
and pretty well pulled Jimmy to his feet.  The boy thanked Rita for the match and looked 
quizzically at the other two girls.

“I called them when I changed for the wrestle” Rita said.  “I thought they might like to 
join us.  And you wanted to tell them something.”

After Jimmy apologized for yesterday’s boorish behavior, Margaret and Diana expressed 
an interest in joining the festivities.  And Jimmy figured, what the hell!  But he needed 
time to recover from wrestling with Rita.  The time was taken up with talk about the next 
set of matches to occur.  All the girls wanted to leg-wrestle; Diana wanted to arm-wrestle 
and with a gleam in her eye, Margaret leered at Jimmy with her wrestling challenge.  
Jimmy also found out that Diana was only 11, but Margaret was nearly 14.  Maybe she 
wasn’t too young.

They set up a quick leg-wrestling tournament, which was won by Rita.  Jimmy  somehow 
beat Diana, but his eyes bugged out of their socket when Margaret removed her outer 
outfit to reveal a tight-fitting one-piece bathing suit.  Distracted, Jimmy was easily beaten 
by Margaret, who lost to Rita in the tournament championship round.  This led into the 
arm-wrestling, and Diana was all charged up to go.  She and Jimmy faced each other at 
the kitchen table.

Jimmy considered his chances.  It still was amazing to him that he actually thought of the 
possibility of defeat when matched up with an 11-year-old girl.  Diana was built similarly 
to Rita; slim but solid, and a quick check of her biceps and forearms showed sinewy 
muscle.  She was smaller, younger and lighter than Rita, though, so Jimmy figured that 
he had a chance.  And it was possible that Diana wasn’t as naturally strong as Rita.  That 
possibility died quickly when Diana and Jimmy clasped hands.  He knew he was in for a 
tough match.

Margaret started them and the match ended surprisingly quickly.  Diana simply 
overpowered him from the word “go” and pinned his hand to the table.  The speed of the 
result not only shocked Jimmy, but also Margaret and Rita.  Diana quipped “maybe you 
want to try two hands against my one, Jimmy?”  The stunned 16-year-old boy wisely 
refused.  The other girls stared at their young, small friend.  Then Rita recovered and 
congratulated Diana and Margaret did the same.  And finally Jimmy shook her small, 
strong hand.  He was getting used to being whipped by pre-teens.  He also thought that it 
was lucky that the British didn’t have these girls when they battled the Americans in the 
Revolutionary War.  

Jimmy was to wrestle Margaret.  She confided in the group that she probably couldn’t 
beat either Rita or Diana in arm-wrestling, and that Jimmy probably held a significant 
arm strength edge.  Margaret had beaten Jimmy in leg-wrestling, so he knew enough to 
try to stay away from them.  But he really didn’t want to; Margaret’s legs were great!  
She was about 5’4” and probably 115 pounds, or so.  And she wore them well.

They faced each other and Jimmy tried the same move he first attempted on Rita.  It 
worked.  He was able to bulldoze Margaret to the carpet and got on top of her.  It looked 
like a good move for Jimmy, except Margaret pulled her legs up, pulled them behind 
Jimmy’s head and thrust him down to the ground.  Pretty soon she had the same grip on 
him as he had had on her.  But his legs were not as flexible, and Jimmy couldn’t emulate 
Margaret’s move.  But he was stronger than her, and by sheer muscle managed to break 
her hold.  They wrestled on the ground, both enjoying the close contact.  Jimmy was able 
to get the edge several times, but he couldn’t keep it as Margaret’s flexibility and leg 
strength managed to keep him at bay.  Plus, although Jimmy’s arms were stronger, 
Margaret’s entire body was pretty strong.  Her soft, small breasts pushed up against his 
muscular chest; her curvy hips pressed against his manly ones, and Margaret more than 
held her own in the matchup.

Jimmy was getting tired.  He didn’t have Margaret’s stamina anyway, and he was worn 
out from his match with Rita.  Margaret got on top of him and held him down easily.  
Jimmy could have fought back a little, but he enjoyed the feel of Margaret’s body on his.  
Not waiting for his concession, Margaret got off him and picked him up in her arms, 
which were obviously pretty strong.  She spun around with him until he got dizzy, and 
then Margaret dumped Jimmy on the sofa.  He was aware that she kissed him lightly and 
then all of the girls came over and tickled him for a while.  Jimmy was having a blast!

When Jimmy regained his equilibrium, Rita mentioned to him that she had a few more 
friends who might like a go at him.  Margaret frowned at her, but Jimmy thought that this 
was going to be one interesting vacation.