Miss Laura: Her Sister's Keeper
by Miss Laura, mk92787@hotmail.com
Laura finally confronts someone who had been giving her a headache for months. But instead of a challenge, this person has a favor to ask of her.




Laura left the gym feeling drained. For the last several weeks she had been soundly 
defeating opponents left and right. Though there had been a couple of close calls, it had 
been a while since she faced any insurmountable challenges. She nevertheless had 
exhausted herself, and thankfully she didn't have another match scheduled in the coming 
days. As soon as she got home, she was going to post a little hiatus notice on her web 
site, schedule a full body massage at a spa, and then take the next week or so off without 
giving wrestling a second thought.

That's when she saw the white Buick parked across the street.

"Shit," Laura said to herself.

She honestly thought that Tina had given up by now, or that she had done enough to 
throw her off her trail. It had been months since the two had spoken to each other, ever 
since Tina started scheduling matches for Laura without her consent. Laura put a block 
on her e-mail program to reject messages from Tina's address. She removed her from her 
MySpace and Facebook pages. Heck, she even changed cell phone numbers. It was clear 
that she simply didn't want to associate with her.

The good news, at least for the moment, was that Tina was in fact parked across the 
street. She wasn't blocking the driveway or otherwise trespassing--Ralph had given her a 
good enough scare more than once to keep off the gym's property during non-business 
hours. Laura meanwhile was allowed to park behind the building in the de facto 
employee lot. If she hustled, she could very well sneak down the side of the gym and get 
to her car in back without being seen from the street.

"Laura!" the voice called out, seemingly from everywhere all at once.

Aw damn it, Laura thought to herself. She turned back to face the street, and there she 
was. Tina was standing on the sidewalk, waving broadly as if to get her attention--just in 
case Laura wouldn't otherwise see the person she had been intentionally avoiding for the 
last few months.

"Got a minute?" Tina asked, her voice sounding relatively pleasant. Either she couldn't 
take a hint or she was being deceptively cheerful.

"I really don't," Laura began, beginning to inch her way down the driveway to the back of 
the building.

"Aw, come on," Tina pleaded. "Just a second. I promise, I'm not here to cause trouble."

"Yeah right," Laura whispered. She knew she was going to curse herself immediately, but 
she reluctantly started up the driveway to the tall, athletic blonde. As she walked, Laura's 
mind began racing with questions. Was Tina going to be pissed? Was she even aware that 
she was in fact being shunned? Did she understand why? Laura started to wonder how 
she would have felt if she had been friends with someone who started to ignore her out of 
the blue.

Screw it, Laura thought. After all, she was trying to horn in on her business, something 
she did for both profit and enjoyment. Friends don't do that to each other. Tina crossed 
that line long ago.

"Look," Tina began as Laura approached. "I know I annoyed you. I got greedy for no 
reason and tried to tell you how to do your thing."

Point?

"I really don't have time--" Laura started.

"I know, I know. I won't waste your time with an apology. I swear I'll leave you alone."

You haven't been doing that good of a job so far.

"But," Tina continued, "I want you to do me a favor."

A favor? Why sure! After all, I DO owe you.

"Excuse me?" Laura asked, thoroughly befuddled at the nerve of Tina asking for anything 
from her.

"You see, my little sister has taken an interest in wrestling, and I was wondering if you 
could--"

"Stop right there. I don't train." Laura was already despising this conversation. She 
wondered why she even wasted her time coming over there. She knew it was just going 
to be some stupid request. Her sister has started liking wrestling, and so what? If Laura 
had received an e-mail through her web site that started off like that, she wouldn't have 
gotten past the first paragraph before trashing it.

"No, no, not train. Just give her a sparring match next week so she can see what it's really 
like."

"Look, I'm really not interested. I was planning on taking a couple of days off, actually." 
Laura had already begun backpedaling toward her car again.

"Come on, you owe me."

Laura froze in her tracks, dumbfounded at the comment.

"I WHAT?" Laura asked, her civil if not pleasant tone piercing up a bit.

"You stiffed me on those matches I set up! You never gave me anything: no cut from the 
DVDs, no thank you, no nothing. You didn't even show up for the last few. I looked like 
an idiot!"

"I never told you to book those matches! You are NOT my manager, and even if you 
were, you still needed to clear them with me first! And I NEVER said anything to you 
about money, and frankly, what I do during my matches and for what reason is none of 
your business! If I had known that you were only out to get something in return I 
wouldn't even have you let you set up the ones I DID show up for!"

By now the two women were in each other's faces. They were so close to each other that 
their chests were almost rubbing together. The heat that was coming off them from the 
argument mixed with the cold autumn air that was whipping around them. Laura had a 
momentary case of deja vu, as she recalled a street fight she was once in that started just 
like this: an argument in an alley that just got out of hand. She was in no mood to repeat 
that situation right now, but she was ready for anything.

Tina looked like she was about to respond, as she gritted her teeth and tightened her 
glare, but then her face abruptly softened. Laura was getting pissed just imagining what 
she COULD have said. Go ahead, Laura thought to herself, give me a reason to wail on 
you.

"Fine," Tina smiled, still baring her teeth almost evilly. "Just please do this for me and I 
promise to never bother you again."

Although Laura did enjoy that thought--not having to worry about looking for cars as she 
drove to the gym or having Ralph get the cops involved--she hardly felt like Tina was in 
any position to negotiate. Laura wondered why certain people always think little things 
like rules or laws never applied to them. "Yeah, the cops said to leave this person alone," 
she imagined some cocky person saying, "but that didn't apply to me, and especially not 
during the day!" People let their dogs run around neighborhoods unsupervised, jilted ex-
boyfriends harass women at work, and speed limits are regarded as mere suggestions. 
We've become a nation of narcissists, with everyone thinking that everyone else is out to 
get in the way of their good time. As far as Laura was concerned, Tina should be leaving 
her alone now anyway; there shouldn't need to be a condition attached to it.

"Tina," Laura began, her own tone cooling finally, "I really don't do exhibition kind of 
matches."

"Please. Look, she's nineteen."

"Nineteen? Bit of an age difference between you there. What, twenty-one years?"

"Yeah, she was a bit of a surprise for our parents. They had a new 'little princess.' Didn't 
you say you were nineteen when you first started?"

"In college, yeah."

"Didn't you wish back then that someone gave you some guidance? Wouldn't you have 
killed for a chance to be in a real match with a real wrestler?"

"I suppose so." Little did Tina know that Laura did have such guidance in college. She 
met with friends regularly for matches and to teach each other techniques. Laura never 
breathed a word of it to her, and she certainly never told her about Tom, the older man 
she had an affair with after she graduated--who then later ended their relationship by 
beating the shit out of her one night. Laura felt that her past was none of Tina's business; 
and thankfully, Tina didn't suspect anything in that ballpark.

"Just take a look at her at least," Tina continued as she reached into her inside jacket 
pocket. There was something unsettling about Tina's tone and overall demeanor; sleazy 
almost, like someone setting a person up on a blind date. Tina produced a small Polaroid 
photo from her jacket, one depicting a fairly young-looking blond girl posing with a 
plastic cup. It looked like it was taken at a backyard party or something.

At first glance, Laura thought she looked cute in a naive, "I'm too bubbly to care how the 
world works" sort of way. There definitely was a youthful glow about her.

"How tall is she?" Laura asked, not quite showing any real reaction yet.

"She's 5'5"."

Laura was momentarily taken aback by that, only because she was the same height. She 
quickly brushed it off as just an odd coincidence.

"Weight?"

"108."

Well, that's a slight relief, Laura thought. Not only did Laura's 175-pound frame 
outweigh Tina's sister now, but Laura had also outweighed her back when she was in 
college herself. Up until this point, Laura was having an eerie feeling about this whole 
situation, like she was in some strange science fiction story where she had to wrestle her 
younger self. That feeling finally passed; not that Laura was totally committed to this 
idea yet, but she was at least a little more comfortable about it now.

"Look," Laura sighed, still trying to get out of it. "I'm still going to need more 
information, like her stats and--"

"Oh," Tina interrupted, "I got them right here." She pulled a small piece of paper from 
her jacket, like a page from a small memo book, and handed it to Laura.

"What is her name anyway?" Laura asked as she glanced down at the paper.

"Missy."

Laura thought, Missy? A new strange feeling started to nag at her, like she was being set 
up. Tina probably didn't even have a sister, she told herself. The picture was probably 
from some stranger's MySpace profile. The vibe Laura was getting only intensified when 
she started reading the sheet with Missy's supposed statistics. Tina had written down her 
measurements, 32B-22-32. Laura again noted how much she outweighed Missy with her 
own 42DD-38-44 body, but then she became a little disturbed at the idea of Tina finding 
out and sharing her own sister's measurements. The other info Tina had provided--bicep 
size, body fat approximation--was of no help or interest to Laura. She wondered, with all 
the "help" Tina used to give her arranging matches, did she have any idea what to look 
for in opponents?

"If she's really serious about this," Laura began, knowing of the one surefire way to tell if 
Tina was trying to somehow scam her, "she'll need to sign a waiver in case she gets hurt, 
plus a waiver to appear on-camera and--"

"The first one is fine," Tina interrupted. "But you're not taping this."

"Excuse me?" Laura already didn't like where this was going. Again, it was the tone. Tina 
didn't ask "Can you please not tape this." It was more of an order, as if Laura was her 
employee. It was exactly the kind of shit that cooled Laura off on letting Tina help her in 
the first place.

"This isn't for people's amusement. This is to benefit my sister. You're not taping this, get 
me?"

That was it.

"Now you 'get me,'" Laura began, the fire rising back up into her voice. "You want my 
help, then you're going to do it my way. I'm not going to put off my vacation and waste a 
Saturday doing the exact same thing I need a vacation from and NOT get any 
compensation out of it. Frankly, I don't care what benefits your sister. I do what I do for 
my amusement and for my customers' amusement. I tape my matches and sell them--you 
knew that going in. If you don't want to do this my way, then find yourself another 
'professional.' Lots of luck with that sunny attitude of yours."

Tina's face again scrunched up into a scowl. Laura noticed how wrinkly it became, 
clearly the result of heavy make-up over the years doing a number on her forty-year-old 
visage. Laura wasn't worried about what that face meant, though. If Tina had come to 
fight, she would have started it already.

"Fine," Tina responded angrily. "Tape it, but we split the profits."

"If she wins, we split the profits."

Tina didn't answer, so Laura took that as an agreement. She pulled blank copies of her 
waivers out of her bag and handed them to Tina. Tina stormed off to her white Buick 
across the street, acting like a spoiled child who had been told to wait until Christmas for 
a toy they want. Just before getting in, she paused and turned to Laura.

"If you screw us over on this," she threatened, "I will make your life a living hell." With 
that, she got into her car and loudly slammed the door shut.

"You've been doing a good job so far," Laura muttered under her breath.

Several days passed, and Laura again found herself in the locker room getting ready. She 
would rather have been anywhere else in the world at that moment--at a spa relaxing, on 
a boring road trip somewhere, even in a hospital in a coma. She already had on her usual 
red sports bra and matching boxers as she waited for Tina and her sister to arrive. Laura 
was at the gym earlier than usual, almost anxiously early, as if she really wanted to get 
this over with.

"You ready in there?" came the voice from the doorway.

"Yeah, come on in," Laura replied, a distinct lack of enthusiasm in her voice.

Mikey came walking in, camera in hand. Laura was definitely glad he was available 
today. She wasn't as concerned about getting extra video content like interviews and the 
like as she had been in the past. Instead, she just needed someone else there that she 
trusted. She wasn't sure she could describe how awkward she would have felt if she had 
been alone in the gym with both Tina and a complete stranger. She told Mikey on the 
phone that she needed a familiar face with her for moral support, and he was more than 
happy to provide that.

"So, would you consider this a grudge match?" Mikey asked while pointing his little 
digital video camera at Laura, trying to create some semblance of an interview.

"I don't think I would," Laura responded, trying to sound diplomatic. Deep down, she 
hated the question and really didn't want to talk about it. Ironically, for all the interviews 
and extra segments she had done for her DVDs, she much preferred keeping her feelings 
and opinions to herself. "If I had actually been wrestling Tina, then maybe. But since I 
don't know her sister from a hole in the wall, I can't say there's too much bad blood 
between us." She punctuated her reasoning with a light chuckle.

The interview continued on in an unorganized sort of way for the next fifteen minutes as 
both Laura and Mikey waited to hear the main gym entrance open. Tina and Missy were 
cutting it down to the wire, and for a moment Laura was starting to feel a great weight 
being lifted off her ample chest, as if maybe--just maybe--she wouldn't have to go 
through with this at all. Hey, Laura imagined telling Tina at a later point, you two didn't 
show up when I was here, so why should I have to reschedule for you?

As soon as Laura was done talking on-camera, Mikey stood up and headed out the locker 
room.

"I'll stand by the door and keep a lookout for her car," he explained on his way out. He 
already saw that Laura was getting a little antsy and figured anything he could do in the 
meantime might help.

Laura finally heard the main entrance rattle open, figuring that Mikey probably didn't 
even make it all the way down there yet. Laura didn't really want to go through with this, 
but at the same time she really wanted to not have to deal with Tina again.

Tina and Missy both entered the locker room, almost side by side in a weird symbiotic 
sort of way. Without a word, Tina motioned her sister over to the locker that Laura left 
open for her. Missy quietly and almost meekly walked over to it, not even looking at 
Laura.

"Laura," Tina began, "this is my sister, Missy. Missy, this is Miss Laura." Missy let out a 
suppressed laugh, which Laura at first thought was because of the awkward-sounding 
way her sister introduced the two of them. But deep down, she had a nagging sense that 
Missy was laughing at her stage name.

"Nice to meet you," Missy said, turning toward Laura and offering a hand.

Oh good, Laura thought, Tina knew even less about how she wrestled than she thought. 
Laura was sure that at some point she had told Tina about her little trick before each 
match, shaking hands with her opponent to test their level of strength and aggression. But 
no matter. It had never failed her, and she wasn't about to give it up now. As they shook 
hands, Laura could feel Missy tighten her grip, almost as if she had something to prove. 
Right then and there, Laura knew she had nothing to worry about.

As Laura tied her long red hair back, she turned to Tina.

"Do you have the waivers all signed and ready to go?" she asked.

"Yes," Tina answered. "Of course."

"May I have them, please?"

As she reached into her purse, Tina glared at Laura slightly with a "how dare you 
question me" sort of look. She pulled the waivers out and handed them to her. Laura 
looked them over quickly--she was so used to this by now that she knew exactly what 
would and wouldn't look out of place--and by the time she was done Missy was already 
in a hot pink bikini top and was proceeding to slip off her dark jeans. She revealed a 
matching pink thong underneath, which took Laura by surprise. The fact that she would 
dress like that not only for something that was going to be taped and sold around the 
world but also in front of her older sister raised a red flag or two in Laura's mind. It was 
the same creepiness she had felt earlier when Tina was giving her details about Missy's 
measurements.

Laura left the locker room just as Mikey entered, hoping to grab a few choice interview 
moments before the match started. Laura walked over to her stationary ringside camera 
and turned it on. As she slipped under the ropes and into the ring she could hear some 
arguing going on in the locker room. Mikey, she concluded.

While she stretched, she saw Tina and Missy leave the locker room in a huff, Tina more 
so than Missy anyway.

"Fucking faggot," Laura heard Tina mutter under her breath. Laura wasn't exactly sure 
what Mikey had said to warrant such an abusive label, but she was certain that very few 
men with an interest in female wrestling could possibly be considered homosexual.


She saw Tina whisper some things into Missy's ear, seeming like some last-minute 
pointers or something, before finally allowing her sister to enter the ring. In the 
meantime, Mikey appeared in the locker room doorway. Glancing at Laura, he just 
shrugged his shoulders.

Missy stretched for a couple of seconds before facing Laura on the other side of the ring. 
Missy held her hands up in a rather insecure ready stance, as if she didn't really know 
how to start things off.

"Get her!" Tina yelled from the floor.

Missy rushed up to Laura, bent down, and drove her right fist into her belly. She looked 
up to see Laura's reaction. Laura just looked back down at her, raising an eyebrow.

"Is that all you got?" Laura asked, cool as a cucumber.

Missy was more than a little upset, as she thought surely a poke to the gut would have at 
least made this big girl drop down, stagger back, catch her off guard, anything! As a 
young girl Missy had been in maybe two schoolyard scraps at most, and a stomach punch 
always seemed to do the trick. Determined to make this older woman fall, Missy drove 
her left into Laura's stomach, followed by another right, and then another left.

To Laura it was almost comical, looking down and seeing this wiry teenager huddled 
down and attempting to work over her belly. She almost felt sorry for Missy, who was 
clearly hoping to surprise her with her initial punch. Laura had been socked in the gut 
seemingly a million times; some of them hurt, some of them didn't. It had nothing to do 
with surprise or leverage or any other tactic. There's a lot of that in wrestling, sure, using 
basic physics to your advantage, but with flat-out punching it's different. It has everything 
to do with strength. Either you have muscles in your arms and shoulders or you don't. 
And though Missy was technically physically fit, perhaps in a sickly waif-life sort of 
way, she hardly had any pronounced upper body strength. Poor girl, Laura thought, she is 
going to suffer.

After about the eighth time back-and-forth with her fists, Missy was already starting to 
tire out. She looked back up to see if she was doing any damage. Laura responded by 
backhanding her hard across the face.

"Uhhhn!" Missy groaned as the swat knocked her down to the mat. At first she wasn't 
sure what exactly happened. Surely some object flew into the ring and hit her, she 
thought. But there was nothing there; just this slightly plump lady standing over her, 
seemingly light-years away through all the pain. It was going to take a few seconds for 
the stars to clear from her eyes.

"You heifer!" Missy spat out from the mat. "I'm gonna mop the floor with your fat ass!"

Laura couldn't help but glance out of the ring to look at Tina. She was standing there, 
arms crossed, and smirking, obviously pleased with the trash talk.

"If you don't teach her some manners right this second," Laura glared, "then I will."

"Don't look at me," Tina smiled, feigning innocence. "I'm staying out of this."

Laura was too busying eyeballing Tina to notice that Missy had gotten back up onto her 
feet. Seeing an opening, Missy rushed back up to Laura and wrapped her arms around her 
waist, hooking her hands onto Laura's buttocks. She then leaned back and tried to pull.

Laura stared at Missy in both disbelief and confusion. What was she trying to do? Put her 
in a bearhug? Lift her up? Throw her over the ropes? Give her a wedgie? It was 
becoming increasingly apparent that Missy had absolutely no wrestling experience or 
training before in her young life. Some sister Tina was, not even giving her some pointers 
before setting this up.

Undaunted with whatever task she was attempting, Missy ducked down and tightened her 
grip around Laura's waist. Her hands moved to Laura's right thigh, and by now it was a 
little more clear that she was trying to somehow lift Laura up for whatever reason.


Laura felt like this whole afternoon was becoming a huge waste of time, as she was 
getting more and more annoyed with Missy, to say nothing of how she felt about Tina at 
this point in time. It was time to stop playing around, so Laura slammed her right arm 
down across Missy's upper back.

"Aaaackk!" Missy screamed as she dropped to the mat at Laura's feet. Her long blond 
hair sailed down elegantly, draping down around her face like silk curtains. Wincing in 
pain, she reached back to try to cover her back, all the while silently mouthing "ow" over 
and over again.

"Get up!" Tina called out from the floor. Missy heard her but was unable to comply. All 
she could do was writhe on the mat and shake her head no.

You want her up, Laura thought to herself, then I'll get her up. Reaching down, Laura 
grabbed onto the top of Missy's hair and easily pulled her up to her feet.

"Yeeoowww!" Missy screamed as she felt herself lifted up, feeling as if her scalp was on 
fire. She always took great pride in her hair. A lot of people had told her that it was her 
best feature. She still recalled the time she was making out with a boyfriend in his car, 
getting really hot and heavy, when all of a sudden he asked if she could wrap her locks 
around his penis and jerk him off that way. The idea really turned her on and she 
probably would have done it, but she was more concerned about all the washing she 
would have to do afterward.

But here she was now as someone was not only using her own hair against her but also 
using it as a show of dominance. The match had barely been going for a few minutes and 
she was already exhausted, sweat coming out of practically every pore. Her shimmering 
locks were now frizzy, mangled, and almost ratty from sweat. By the time Laura got her 
to her feet, she looked well beyond her nineteen years.

Laura meanwhile had barely broken a sweat of her own.

Missy was tired, beaten up, and already feeling a little humiliated. Even though the real-
life stakes were much, much smaller, she now felt as if she was playing for keeps. 
Figuring that she had nothing to lose, with all her remaining strength she shot her right 
fist right at Laura's mighty chest.

But Laura was ready for that. She was ready for anything, in fact, but she was actually 
expecting a boob attack. She was overweight and hardly turned as many heads as she 
would like to, but for some reason other women always envied her breasts. They weren't 
anything spectacular; just a pair of 42DDs, widened around the edges from when she was 
pregnant with her daughter. But they became a popular target for female opponents. 
Mikey once joked with her that it was like how Batman has a symbol on his chest: the 
bad guys subconsciously use that as a target to shoot at, not knowing that Batman wears 
body armor underneath for just that reason.

Laura meanwhile was not that lucky. As far as she knew, Champion had yet to make a 
steel-plated sports bra, so she was on her own to defend herself against such attacks. Not 
that she had anything to worry about with Missy, as she grabbed onto her fist as soon as 
she was able to connect.

"Hey..." Missy began, almost as if she was about to protest the block.

Laura gave her no such chance as she moved behind Missy, twisting her right arm back 
as she brought it along with her.

"Yaaahh!" Missy howled, certain that she could feel her shoulder crack from the pressure.

Laura gave her arm a final sharp twist before spinning Missy around to face her. She 
couldn't tell if the young girl was still aware of her surroundings; honestly, she didn't 
care. Bending down slightly, Laura rushed forward, ramming herself into Missy, 
knocking her backwards.

"Uhhmmf!" Missy sputtered before she stumbled back, landing neatly in the corner of the 
ring.

Laura slowly began to advance toward her. At this point, she wasn't quite sure what she 
was going to do: ram into her, body-slam her, just plain old slap her silly? Missy looked 
so helpless there in the corner, and Laura was starting to enjoy herself.

"You...you aren't supposed to be so rough," Missy whined as she tried to prop herself up, 
holding onto the top ropes on either side of her.

Laura stopped in her tracks. Was she being serious? Wasn't supposed to be so rough?? 
Laura wondered if she had missed out on some sort of reading of rules at the start of the 
match. She wasn't sure if she should laugh or just ignore the plea. She did neither.

"What did you think you were signing up for, little girl?" Laura asked with a slight 
taunting tone.

"But, but we paid for the hour. You're supposed to--"

Laura backhanded her across the face, shutting her up instantly. It was more impulsive 
than anything, as Laura genuinely felt offended by the remark, though she wasn't exactly 
sure why. Paid for the hour? Like she was what? A prostitute? A day worker? One of 
those stupid fake session wrestlers online? Granted that Laura essentially was just that, 
setting up appointments and meeting strangers and the like, but it was tone Missy used 
that did it. There was something degrading about, as if she was talking to a servant.

Laura then took a quick look back at Tina, who by now had grabbed onto the bottom 
ropes on one side of the ring, preparing to climb up them for a closer view, or at least as 
far as Laura hoped. Laura saw nothing but red, with Tina's mature blond hair turning a 
fiery orange. What the hell did she tell her sister was going to happen? Did she lie to her 
just to get her into the ring? Was this all just a ruse to get Laura to talk to Tina again? 
Whatever it was, it was clear that Tina was using her sister somehow, and Laura most 
certainly didn't like it.

"Mop the floor with you, heifer."

The words were faint, but Laura heard them and slowly looked back to her prey in the 
corner. It seemed as if Missy still had some fight left in her, even if she wasn't fully 
aware of what was going on anymore. Whatever sympathy Laura was developing for 
Missy soon dissipated, and at this point she just didn't care anymore about who was right 
and who was wrong and who was innocent and who was guilty. As far as she was 
concerned right now, there was still a match to win, and Missy hadn't submitted yet.

With a sneer, Laura grabbed at Missy's bikini top and yanked roughly, practically causing 
it to explode in her hand. Missy let out a soft groan as her white 32B breasts jiggled in 
freedom. Only two other people had seen her topless before, both boys she knew from 
school; certainly not another woman, and most definitely not her own sister. But she was 
still in too much of a daze to feel embarrassed or violated.

"What the HELL do you think you're doing?!?" Tina screamed from out of the ring.

"Stay out of this," Laura hissed over her shoulder before backhanding Missy across her 
newly bared chest.

"Ohhhh!" Missy moaned as a hand went up to her breastplate. If she had been 
considerably developed at all, her cleavage would have surely protected any attack. 
Unfortunately for her, though, the area was a prime target, already turning red from the 
smack.

"Give up yet?" Laura asked, a slight smirk to her face.

Missy only glared at her. She felt embarrassed, helpless, and exhausted. Her mind began 
racing back to elementary school, when she was often picked on by the older or just plain 
old bigger girls. That's why she developed an interest in wrestling and fighting, so she 
could find a way to defend herself. She wasn't going to let anyone beat her up ever again.

"Never again!" she whispered to herself as she charged at Laura, hoping to tackle into 
her. But her smaller frame was no match, and she was the only one hurt in the collision.

Laura responded by ramming both of her fists down onto Missy's back.

"Uhhhr!" Missy groaned as she felt her knees give out from the pain. She would have 
surely collapsed right there on the mat, but Laura grabbed a handful of her hair again, 
literally keeping her upright by it. Missy more or less just hung there in the older 
woman's grasp.

"All right! That's enough!" Tina called out from the ropes. "You've proved your point!"

"Shut up," Laura growled, not even bothering to look back in Tina's direction. She pulled 
Missy in close, wrapped her arms around the young girl, and began squeezing tightly.

"Uuuuuhhghhh," Missy groaned, stretching it out almost as if her very essence was being 
pressed out of her. Her bare breasts were practically lost against Laura's bust. Her limbs 
struggled for but a moment before they all went limp.

"How about now?" Laura asked softly, her arms refusing to give. "Submit?" As if to 
punctuate her dominance, she tightened her arms around Missy ever so slightly.

Missy couldn't talk; she could barely breathe. Her eyes were pinched shut in a pained 
wince. She thrashed her head up and down wildly. Satisfied, Laura eased her grasp, 
allowing Missy to break free if she so desired. Instead, she slowly opened her eyes, which 
were now quite glazed over, and crumpled down to the mat, her face brushing against 
Laura's chest as she fell, leaving a trail of defeated drool down the middle of her sports 
bra.

Laura turned her head back toward Tina and barely had time to turn her look into a glare 
when she heard that word coming from the mat.

"Cow."

Laura darted her head back toward Missy, who was now in a pile at Laura's feet. Laura 
thought, she didn't just say that, right? After being smacked around and almost beaten 
into unconsciousness, she didn't actually have the nerve to mouth off to her just now, did 
she?

"What was that?" Laura asked, her earlier soft tone dropping a few levels into something 
much more sinister.

"You heard me," Missy muttered back, not even giving Laura enough respect to look her 
in the eye and repeat it. As if egging her on, Laura couldn't help but hear Tina let out an 
agreeing chuckle.

That's it.

Laura reached down, past Missy's now-matted and mopped hair and instead grabbed onto 
her nose and squeezed.

"Ehhhrr!" Missy squeaked out as this new kind of pain burst into her.

"What the--" Tina began, but it was too late. Laura was already yanking Missy up to her 
feet by her nose. If she had been in a better mood, Laura surely would have mouthed a 
Three Stooges-like sound effect, just to add to Missy's current humiliation. But right now, 
she was just pissed. Pissed at Tina. Pissed at herself for even considering this fiasco in the 
first place. And pissed at this little bitch who didn't even have the decency to refrain from 
name-calling after just having her ass handed to her.

Missy groaned loudly as she went up, creating a noise a few decibels higher than her 
previous grunts and shrieks of pain. Laura roughly let go of her nose, revealing clots of 
blood already forming in her nostrils. Tears were now coming down in huge drops, and 
her dried lips were quivering.

"Time to finally teach you some manners," Laura hissed into Missy's sweaty, bloody, 
crying face. She grabbed Missy by the back of her head and reached down to grab her 
compact ass. With a grunt, she slowly lifted Missy's petite frame up, holding her body 
over her head.

"No," Missy moaned between sobs. "No...."

"Put her down!" Tina yelled as she clutched onto the ropes. For whatever reason, she was 
still subconsciously obeying the dynamics of the match, as if the ring's ropes were acting 
as some sort of force field to deter outsiders.

Laura ignored both pleas and proceeded to slowly walk toward the other side of the ring. 
Missy had tears streaming down her cheeks and was sputtering out coughing gags as she 
cried.

"Stop it! Stop it! She's had enough!!" Tina continued.

Laura paused just as she reached the ropes. She had no more sympathy left in her.

"Tiiinaaaaaa!!" Missy sobbed, drawing out her sister's name as if she was singing some 
1960s lover's lament song by the Monkees.

"NO!" Tina screamed out.

With a heave, Laura tossed Missy's light frame over the ropes and out of the ring. Her 
slender white body sailed outward before falling sharply, crash-landing right into a row 
of folding chairs. There was most definitely no question about it now: she was out, and 
she had lost.

Laura had mixed feelings at the moment. She was satisfied for a number of reasons; glad 
that she showed this little girl up, but also vindicated by showing her that all this isn't just 
a game. And of course, she was deviously glad that she had symbolically given Tina a 
piece of her mind. But deep down, a nagging fear was growing inside her that maybe she 
had gone too far.

All of these feelings were dancing around with each other as Laura turned toward the 
middle of the ring, seeing Tina finally rush toward her.

"You fucking fat-ass bitch!" Tina spat out just before backhanding Laura across the face.

"Uhhn!" Laura groaned as her head snapped to the side. It had been a long time since 
someone had taken her by surprise with a hit--whatever one wants to call it; a potshot, a 
coldcock, a bitch-slap. She usually commanded too much of a sense of respect for anyone 
to dare strike her out of the blue or outside the confines of a match. Her cheek ached 
quite a bit, almost as if it was cut. Tina probably had a ring on one of her fingers.

Laura quickly turned back toward Tina and glared. Tina just stood there, a faint look of 
defiance across her face. Laura cocked her fist back. Tina did the same. Holy shit, Laura 
thought to herself, here we go.

"Miss Laura?"

The voice was soft and seemingly from the other side of the world, but the tension in the 
ring was so palpable at that moment that it nevertheless startled both women, jumping as 
if a firecracker had gone off. It was enough for them to break their mutual gaze on each 
other. Both of their hearts were still racing as they each glanced to the side to see who 
was talking.

Laura referred to him as "Old Gus," yet she doubted she ever would have been as 
insensitive as to call him that to his face; she honestly couldn't recall if anyone else ever 
gave him that nickname, either. Ralph had hired him seemingly centuries ago for 
janitorial work and basic maintenance services--repair the ring ropes, regularly replace 
the light bulbs, make sure the water heater doesn't go on the fritz, etc. Laura couldn't 
begin to guess how old he was, as his well-weathered face could place him anywhere 
from fifty to eighty. He was already an institution in the gym when Laura had first started 
coming there years ago. He was old, wiry, and looked like he would collapse at any 
minute from malnourishment, but he was handy and wise beyond his years in the way 
that black men who had been through hell and back usually are. Laura actually knew very 
little about him, but if cliches were any guide she imagined that he was probably an ex-
boxer who knew Ralph professionally at some point, but honestly, he looked like he 
would be more at home in some smoky club at midnight jamming with a blues band. The 
cap he always wore didn't help negate that belief.

"I'm sorry to have to interrupt, ladies," Gus continued slowly as he stood in the doorway 
to the main room, with practically one foot still back in the hallway leading to the gym's 
entrance. "But we're going to be opening up pretty soon. I need to start cleaning up."

"Thanks for the heads up, Gus," Laura replied, her voice perking up an octave in order to 
sound courteous. What the hell was he talking about, she wondered. There was still about 
another hour to go before Ralph would even unlock the main doors, let alone when 
people would start coming in for the evening to exercise or train. And Laura had been 
making it a point lately to schedule her matches earlier for just that very reason, to give 
Gus more time to get the place ready for business. Why was he trying to rush her out?

Then she saw Mikey come back into the room from the hallway. Mikey. It must have 
been Mikey. He probably ran over to get Gus to do something to stop this, but why? Then 
Laura glanced down at the floor, seeing Missy still laying there topless in a pile of 
collapsed metal folding chairs. She was slowly regaining consciousness, sobbing with 
each breath she took. Holy shit, Laura thought to herself, did I really do that? Mikey was 
probably watching the match from the locker room door, saw Missy thrown from the 
ring, and was worried that things were getting out of hand. Upon that realization, Laura 
was starting to worry about that herself. She reminded herself to thank both Mikey and 
Gus later.

"This isn't over, bitch," Tina hissed in Laura's direction.

Laura hated "grudge" matches or using matches to solve personal disagreements, but this 
time, she would make an exception.

"Anytime, anyplace," she responded, starting to sneer.

"Right here! Next week!"

"Gladly."

Tina took a deep breath and left the ring, walking over to Missy to make sure she was all 
right. Laura noticed how Missy's well-being seemed to be a lesser concern for her own 
sister, as Tina was more concerned about setting up a fight than she was making sure she 
was all right. Tina wrapped a towel around Missy, providing her with some much-needed 
modesty in front of the camera geek and the creepy old janitor, and slowly helped her up.

"I'm sorry," Missy whispered to her as she painfully rose. "I'm sorry."

"I know," Tina cooed. "It's all right."

Wrapping her arm around Missy's waist for support, Tina helped her sister hobble over to 
the locker room. It was quite a pathetic sight. Even Mikey wasn't as eager to get the post-
match interview as he had been in the past. All the while Missy was wondering how she 
was going to explain the bruises, not to mention her overall disheveled and clearly 
beaten-up look, to her parents--and perhaps more importantly, how she was going to keep 
Tina out of the explanation.

Just before disappearing into the locker room, Tina paused, stopping Missy along with 
her. She turned her head back toward the ring, where Laura was still standing and staring, 
still looking like a woman ready to pounce.

"And you BETTER show up," Tina warned.

"Or else what? You gonna sic more relatives after me in your place?"



TO BE CONTINUED

(If you enjoyed this story and want to see more of Miss Laura in the future, please send 
feedback to the address at the top.)