08-05-2008, 12:05 AM
Rivals (part 1) written by Jeri
Crissy and Amber had been rivals since high school. They first met in gymnastics class when both were going out for a position on the gymnastics team. Both made the team and did very well in the subsequent competitions, however Crissy acquired a few more trophies than Amber. Later on, they both tried out for (and got) a position on the Cheerleading squad. Again, Crissy won the position as the captain, with Amber a close second.
Crissy had raven black hair that came down to below her waist. She was pretty, helped by her large eyes and the slightest hint of a smile that she was never without. She was a little shorter than most of the other girls, and the slightest bit stockier. However, her stockiness was all muscle due to her training in gymnastics. She had smaller than average breasts, but just the right size for her proportions. Overall, she had a gymnast's body.
Amber was a blond with hair to the middle of her waist. Other than that, her build was almost identical to Crissy's, again due to her training in gymnastics.
Crissy had always been a little better (or, as Amber liked to think of it, a little luckier) at everything she did. Crissy did not think of it in those terms, however. She didn't think of herself as being in competition with the other girls, but as just trying her hardest. She would just do her best, and was quite often a little embarrassed when she came out way ahead of the rest of the girls. Her nature was such that she never imagined that anyone would be jealous of her due to these accomplishments.
Amber accepted this grudgingly. She did not harbor any real ill will against Crissy, but had hoped more than once that it was she who had won more of those top places. She started to think of their relationship as a rivalry, though she didn't know that Crissy was unaware of this rivalry.
Because they had such similar builds and skills, they were usually paired up in the competitions, and were also placed side-by-side in the cheerleading squad. This only aggravated Amber's jealousy, as she thought she was always being compared directly to Crissy. But she did in fact try harder because of this rivalry.
The rivalry continued throughout high school and on into college. Because the town they lived in was fairly small and a little isolated, most of the students who went on to college went to the same college, the one in a neighboring town. But the college did have a good scholastic program that was respected throughout the country. So naturally, when they graduated high school, they both when to this college. And their rivalry continued, since both were again on the same gymnastics and cheer leading teams.
It was after one of the gymnastics practices that the rivalry came to a head, just after a particularly grueling workout. During the practice, Amber had been a little sloppy in some of her routines, and had been corrected several times by the coach. She was a little annoyed at herself, a condition that hadn't been helped by the flawless performance that Crissy had just performed. The coach had just told the team to finish off their practice with a good stretch, and all the girls were stretching their arms and bodies to loosen up their tight muscles. That was when it happened. As Crissy was stretching her arms over and behind her head with her stomach exposed and taut. Amber, in a similar position, made a tight fist and brought her arm around in a fast, hard sideways arc into Crissy's stomach, into her solar plexus.
Crissy fell to the floor on her hands and knees. She didn't clutch her stomach, but was quite winded by the blow. As she was trying to recover, the coach ran over to her. The coach asked what had happened, and she lied that she had slipped and that she would be all right in a little bit.
When the coach left, Crissy looked up at Amber. She saw the jealousy in Amber's eyes, and something approaching hatred there. It was at this point she finally realized there was a rivalry between them. Thinking back, she remembered all the little things that had gone on between them, and all the little verbal slights that Amber had said to her, but she had ignored. All these now made sense in the light of their rivalry.
After Crissy recovered (it didn't take long due to her gymnastic conditioning), she went over to Amber. She knew that this rivalry between herself and Amber (which she had just found out about) most be stopped.
"Amber," Crissy said. "Come over to my dorm room later this evening. I have a way we can resolve this rivalry once and for all!"
Amber said "Fine!" and went for the showers.
Crissy called out after her, "And wear a bikini under your clothes!"
Amber arrived about 6:30, and Crissy let her in. Due to the dip in the number of students who stayed on campus that year, most of the students had their own private dorm rooms. Crissy's dorm room was a large room in the new wing of the dorm building. This new wing had been added back in the early 60's. The whole wing was made entirely of poured concrete, due to the inexpensive nature of that type of construction (the lowest bidder won the contract). This made for a very durable and virtually soundproof room. Also, due to "the incident" they had at the college a while back, all the thin wooden doors had been replaced with strong steel ones. This helped with the soundproofing, to the extent that the dorm residents believed you could light off an M-80 firecracker in one of those rooms and not have the sound heard in the halls or by the neighbors. A thought came to Amber that you could easily have sex in one of those creaky beds the college supplied and not have anyone be any the wiser, and immediately Amber wondered where that thought had come from.
The walls and the ceiling were all solid concrete, covered with plaster and painted in a bright color for esthetic reasons. The carpet on the floor was thick and luxurious, with a very thick sponge padding underneath. It was said that the carpet was a gift from a wealthy alumnus who had lived in this dorm wing just after it was built, and had remembered the feeling of the original tiled floor of the wing on cold winter mornings.
The first thing Amber noticed was that Crissy's room was very neat. Everything was in its place. She thought about her own room that, while not completely in shambles, still had piles of clothes and dust most everywhere. This room looked positively sparkling by comparison, it was so clean and organized. Looking around a little more however, she noticed one lone white sock peaking out from under the back of the dressing table. Looking closer at the shelves, she saw faint rings of dust where things had been moved recently.
"So!" Amber thought. "She is actually a lot like me even in this respect," as she thought about the quick clean-up she had done when her parents announced they would be visiting her. That rushed clean up had left similar evidence of the previous state of her own room.
Amber came further into the room, and Crissy said, "OK, here's the deal. We're going to have a contest to settle this rivalry once and for all. Whoever wins this contest will be acknowledged as the strongest between us. This won't be known outside this room. This probably won't even change the way we act outside this room, but we'll both know who's the best and who isn't. That'll put an end to all the bickering. Do you agree to ending our rivalry this way?"
Amber said, "Sure. Whoever wins the contest will be the best. We won't need to fight any more, since we'll know ourselves who is the best. Now, what kind of a contest is this going to be?"
Crissy said, "It'll be a stomach punching contest. We'll hit each other taking turns alternately. The first one who gives up, loses."
Amber said, "Fine. Rules?"
"They're simple. We hit each other anywhere in the stomach. Since you already had the first 'punch,' I think it's only fair that I hit you first. Now, strip down to your bikini."
Both girls took off their outer clothes. Amber's bikini had a thin but traditional top that covered most of her breasts. The bikini bottom was cut very low on her, and the thin straps rode low on her hips exposing almost all of her stomach. The bikini was green, of a shade that clashed with her blond hair. However, few of the guys on the beach seemed to notice the color clash, for obvious reasons. Crissy's bikini was a black string bikini that actually matched her raven hair. It consisted of little more than three triangles covering the appropriate parts of her anatomy, held together by black strings. Neither of the two were shy about their bodies, so they were both comfortable in these revealing bikinis on a crowded beach, even though they got almost continuous stares from the guys.
It was only with their bodies thus exposed that you could see the differences in their build. With their cheerleading uniforms or even their gymnastic leotards hiding their build, their bodies looked practically identical. However with the skimpy bikinis, you could see a few differences. Crissy's upper body and breasts were almost identical to Amber's, as were her legs, though neither of them had the usual massively muscled upper legs of a gymnast. They shared the same narrow, small hips and small, firm buttocks. It was in the stomach area that you could see the most differences.
Crissy had a firm but cylindrical upper abdomen area. You could see the muscle sheets from just below her rib cage down to her thin waist, but there was no definition to her abs. Her stomach went just about straight down from the ribs before it started to curve inward a little just above the navel. She had taut skin over the muscles, but no fat at all. This gave the impression that she was all muscle in this area, which was quite true. Below the navel, her stomach flattened and widened out a little to match her hips, but not so much as to become concave. Her lower stomach was still solid with muscle bulk visible through the skin, again with no fat, though there was no real definition in the muscle groups such as you would see in a body builder.
Amber had a slightly different build in the stomach area. Her upper stomach started to become concave just below her ribs, showing a distinct rib line. Though she had about the same muscle bulk as Crissy, the muscle groups were very prominent and defined. You could see a distinct cleft down the middle of her stomach to her navel and well beyond that on into her lower stomach. Each of the planes of her abdominal muscle sheets was visibly defined, as were her obliques. She had noticeable, deep separations running down the sides of her stomach, further defining her abs and obliques. Her lower stomach, however, was flat. It did not have the slightly rounded muscle tone that Crissy had. Instead it was deeply indented, though you could still see the muscles in this area. Again as with Crissy, her skin was taut over her stomach muscles. You could see every muscle working as she moved.
Crissy had the first turn. She told Amber to back up against a blank space on the concrete wall and put her hands behind her head. Crissy brought back her fist and punched Amber below the ribs, right in the solar plexus. Amber grunted a little and bent over slightly, but appeared to be otherwise unaffected. Crissy had expected that, as she had never thrown a punch before, and she knew that Amber had a well-muscled stomach. She had planned to keep pounding on Amber's upper stomach area until her stomach muscles were weakened and one of her punches eventually broke through Amber's muscles into her solar plexus, ending the contest. Crissy thought she could take the same kind of punches that she was planning on giving, at least until she won.
It was now Amber's turn. Crissy realized she had made a mistake when Amber told her to lie down on the floor. When Crissy had told Amber that they would "hit" each other in the stomach, Crissy had been thinking only about punches. The position she was in on the floor with her hands behind her head and her stomach completely exposed made her realize that there were many other ways to "hit" someone in the stomach. She should have been more detailed in the rules. However it was too late, and the same rules would now apply to Amber. It was now an "anything goes" type of contest. Crissy flexed her stomach muscles as tightly as she could and awaited the blow.
When Crissy was set, Amber raised her foot up and brought it down solidly into Crissy's stomach just above the navel. Crissy jerked her hands from behind her head and grabbed her stomach. It had hurt a lot more than she thought it would, but she was already beginning to feel the pain go away. She noticed that Amber had brought her foot down into her stomach flatly. This caused the blow to be spread out over a lot of the stomach muscles. And, Amber had aimed her stomp at the strongest part of Crissy's stomach. It seems that Amber was no more of an expert on this kind of fighting than she was.
Amber was hoping to do more damage than she did with the stomp. Crissy's original blow to her upper stomach had hurt a lot, but she did not want to show it. She still was a little sore there. And now it was Crissy's turn again.
When Crissy had recovered, she told Amber to stand against the wall again. Crissy thought she would stay with her original game plan for at least a little while longer. She punched Amber's upper stomach again, but this time with greater success. Amber grabbed her stomach and bent forward, falling to the floor. Crissy had changed her tactics slightly after thinking about what Amber had done in her stomp. The first punch Crissy had thrown had hit Amber's stomach with her fist flat on. For this second punch, she held the first section of her fingers straight, and bent her hand at the second knuckles. This put all the force of her blow into the points of her knuckles. She also tilted her hand parallel to the centerline of Amber's body and punched just under her ribs, in a sensitive spot. Seeing the effect of this second blow, Crissy quickly learned the lesson of proper placement of a punch and concentration of the force of the punch into the minimal frontal area.
Amber was in trouble. Here she had only taken two punches and she was already in a lot of pain. At this rate, she would be out of the contest on the next blow. Amber stayed on the floor quite a while as she massaged her stomach and thought about what she could do. Fortunately for her, Crissy had made no rules about how long she had to recover. So she took her time getting up, until the stomach pain had subsided to a dull ache. She told Crissy to lie down on her back again. She had seen this done in movies and TV, so she decided to see if she could do it too. She jumped up a little and came down sideways into the middle of Crissy's stomach with the point of her elbow. She hurt her ribs a bit when she landed since she didn't land properly, but it had the desired effect. Crissy rolled up into a ball holding her stomach and gasped for air.
Now it was Crissy who was in trouble. She was having trouble breathing and her stomach was numb from the pain. She knew that she would be feeling the effects of this blow for a long time. She seriously thought about giving up. Instead, she decided to wait a while to see if the pain went away. Slowly it did, though not fast enough for her. She was still a little wobbly when she finally stood up.
Crissy didn't want Amber to think she wasn't recovered, but she was still in a lot of pain from Amber's last blow. She made up her mind to try the same type of strike, since it didn't really rely on strength (which she had little of at this point), but on athletic prowess and timing. She told Amber to lie down, just as she had done.
From Crissy's stance, Amber could tell that she was going to get an elbow to her own stomach, so she flexed her stomach muscles as hard as she could make them. When the blow came, she could not stand the pain. Crissy had landed the point of her elbow low into Amber's flat, lower stomach.
It had been an almost perfect maneuver. Crissy came down with her arm stiff and her elbow pointed into Amber's stomach. Her body was still in the air when her elbow buried itself into Amber's stomach, which put much of the weight of her body right at the point of the elbow.
Amber did not cry out, as she was not able to make a sound, the pain was so intense. She grabbed her lower stomach and curled up whimpering. She did not think about giving up. She could not think about anything but the pain. She almost blacked out from the pain. Slowly she started to come back out of the pain-induced haze. She was at first aware of a noise, which gradually resolved itself into Crissy's voice. Crissy was asking her if she was all right. Crissy was also asking if she wanted to stop the contest. This latter question had an immediate effect on Amber. It snapped her around to full clarity. Though she was still a little woozy and the pain in her lower stomach was only slowly fading away, she was again thinking clearly. She told Crissy through gasps that she would continue, but to give her a minute to recover.
Amber had used the time while she was recovering wisely. She decided on an attack that she thought would end the contest then and there. She slowly got up, thought she remained a little bent over at the lower abdomen. She was breathing heavily, and noticed that Crissy was also. She told Crissy to lie down on her side with her hands over her head.
Crissy knew immediately what was going to happen. With her in this position with her stomach exposed and open at floor level, she was going to be kicked in the stomach.
Amber didn't disappoint her. She stepped back a step from Crissy, jumped forward onto her left foot and swung her right foot forward into a high-speed kick right into the middle of Crissy's stomach at the navel.
Crissy was only aware of the pain for quite a while. When the pain had subsided a little, she became aware of a rather peculiar sound. On gaining a little more clarity of mind, she realized that it was Amber whimpering. It took a little more time and a lot of determination to actually roll over toward the direction of the sound, as Amber was behind her. What Crissy saw was Amber sitting on the floor gingerly massaging her right foot and whimpering a little. It took still more time before Crissy's mind became clear enough for her to actually understand what she was seeing. Amber had kicked hard into Crissy's flexed and hard stomach with her bare foot, more specifically, her bare toes. While Crissy didn't think Amber's toes were broken, they would probably be sore for quite some time.
Amber looked up from massaging her toes and said, "They hurt!"
The ridiculousness of the situation was just too much for Crissy. She burst out laughing, though her stomach hurt a lot every time she laughed. Amber, on seeing this, also burst out laughing, with similar pains.
For the next several minutes, both of them alternately laughed at each other and groaned from the pain. Finally, the laughter died down to a dull chuckle to match the dull pain in their stomachs. They helped each other over to the bed, where Crissy looked at Amber's toes. They were just stubbed, and were not badly injured. Amber would limp a little for the next day, but would be fine after that. They then took turns massaging the pain from each other's stomachs where they had been hit not more than an hour ago. Each knew exactly where to massage the other, since each knew where they had originally created the pain. They both eventually just fell asleep on the bed due to the exertion, both still in their bikinis. Though the rivalry between them was settled, neither one of them could have predicted this as the outcome of the contest meant to settle it.
Epilog:
Because of their excellent physical condition, they both recovered completely from the contest within a couple days. After some discussion, both Crissy and Amber realized that, though they were experts in gymnastics and in top physical condition, they had not really been prepared for the fight. Neither of them would be really effective in a fight. They both decided to take up kickboxing as a sport, though it was very much different than gymnastics. This eventually worked to their advantage, as they incorporated some of their gymnastics into their kickboxing matches, and a few of their kickboxing moves ended up in their gymnastics routines, to the delight of the audience and the approval of the judges.
They kept on with their stomach punching "contests," though it was more for fun, and to see exactly how much each could actually take. One of their favorite contests they dubbed "Human Punching Bag," which they used as training for kickboxing. Eventually, they got to the point where they were throwing and taking stomach punches much harder than any they had delivered during their first contest, with little effect.
About a year after the original contest, there was the incident in the parking lot.
But that is another story...
Crissy and Amber had been rivals since high school. They first met in gymnastics class when both were going out for a position on the gymnastics team. Both made the team and did very well in the subsequent competitions, however Crissy acquired a few more trophies than Amber. Later on, they both tried out for (and got) a position on the Cheerleading squad. Again, Crissy won the position as the captain, with Amber a close second.
Crissy had raven black hair that came down to below her waist. She was pretty, helped by her large eyes and the slightest hint of a smile that she was never without. She was a little shorter than most of the other girls, and the slightest bit stockier. However, her stockiness was all muscle due to her training in gymnastics. She had smaller than average breasts, but just the right size for her proportions. Overall, she had a gymnast's body.
Amber was a blond with hair to the middle of her waist. Other than that, her build was almost identical to Crissy's, again due to her training in gymnastics.
Crissy had always been a little better (or, as Amber liked to think of it, a little luckier) at everything she did. Crissy did not think of it in those terms, however. She didn't think of herself as being in competition with the other girls, but as just trying her hardest. She would just do her best, and was quite often a little embarrassed when she came out way ahead of the rest of the girls. Her nature was such that she never imagined that anyone would be jealous of her due to these accomplishments.
Amber accepted this grudgingly. She did not harbor any real ill will against Crissy, but had hoped more than once that it was she who had won more of those top places. She started to think of their relationship as a rivalry, though she didn't know that Crissy was unaware of this rivalry.
Because they had such similar builds and skills, they were usually paired up in the competitions, and were also placed side-by-side in the cheerleading squad. This only aggravated Amber's jealousy, as she thought she was always being compared directly to Crissy. But she did in fact try harder because of this rivalry.
The rivalry continued throughout high school and on into college. Because the town they lived in was fairly small and a little isolated, most of the students who went on to college went to the same college, the one in a neighboring town. But the college did have a good scholastic program that was respected throughout the country. So naturally, when they graduated high school, they both when to this college. And their rivalry continued, since both were again on the same gymnastics and cheer leading teams.
It was after one of the gymnastics practices that the rivalry came to a head, just after a particularly grueling workout. During the practice, Amber had been a little sloppy in some of her routines, and had been corrected several times by the coach. She was a little annoyed at herself, a condition that hadn't been helped by the flawless performance that Crissy had just performed. The coach had just told the team to finish off their practice with a good stretch, and all the girls were stretching their arms and bodies to loosen up their tight muscles. That was when it happened. As Crissy was stretching her arms over and behind her head with her stomach exposed and taut. Amber, in a similar position, made a tight fist and brought her arm around in a fast, hard sideways arc into Crissy's stomach, into her solar plexus.
Crissy fell to the floor on her hands and knees. She didn't clutch her stomach, but was quite winded by the blow. As she was trying to recover, the coach ran over to her. The coach asked what had happened, and she lied that she had slipped and that she would be all right in a little bit.
When the coach left, Crissy looked up at Amber. She saw the jealousy in Amber's eyes, and something approaching hatred there. It was at this point she finally realized there was a rivalry between them. Thinking back, she remembered all the little things that had gone on between them, and all the little verbal slights that Amber had said to her, but she had ignored. All these now made sense in the light of their rivalry.
After Crissy recovered (it didn't take long due to her gymnastic conditioning), she went over to Amber. She knew that this rivalry between herself and Amber (which she had just found out about) most be stopped.
"Amber," Crissy said. "Come over to my dorm room later this evening. I have a way we can resolve this rivalry once and for all!"
Amber said "Fine!" and went for the showers.
Crissy called out after her, "And wear a bikini under your clothes!"
Amber arrived about 6:30, and Crissy let her in. Due to the dip in the number of students who stayed on campus that year, most of the students had their own private dorm rooms. Crissy's dorm room was a large room in the new wing of the dorm building. This new wing had been added back in the early 60's. The whole wing was made entirely of poured concrete, due to the inexpensive nature of that type of construction (the lowest bidder won the contract). This made for a very durable and virtually soundproof room. Also, due to "the incident" they had at the college a while back, all the thin wooden doors had been replaced with strong steel ones. This helped with the soundproofing, to the extent that the dorm residents believed you could light off an M-80 firecracker in one of those rooms and not have the sound heard in the halls or by the neighbors. A thought came to Amber that you could easily have sex in one of those creaky beds the college supplied and not have anyone be any the wiser, and immediately Amber wondered where that thought had come from.
The walls and the ceiling were all solid concrete, covered with plaster and painted in a bright color for esthetic reasons. The carpet on the floor was thick and luxurious, with a very thick sponge padding underneath. It was said that the carpet was a gift from a wealthy alumnus who had lived in this dorm wing just after it was built, and had remembered the feeling of the original tiled floor of the wing on cold winter mornings.
The first thing Amber noticed was that Crissy's room was very neat. Everything was in its place. She thought about her own room that, while not completely in shambles, still had piles of clothes and dust most everywhere. This room looked positively sparkling by comparison, it was so clean and organized. Looking around a little more however, she noticed one lone white sock peaking out from under the back of the dressing table. Looking closer at the shelves, she saw faint rings of dust where things had been moved recently.
"So!" Amber thought. "She is actually a lot like me even in this respect," as she thought about the quick clean-up she had done when her parents announced they would be visiting her. That rushed clean up had left similar evidence of the previous state of her own room.
Amber came further into the room, and Crissy said, "OK, here's the deal. We're going to have a contest to settle this rivalry once and for all. Whoever wins this contest will be acknowledged as the strongest between us. This won't be known outside this room. This probably won't even change the way we act outside this room, but we'll both know who's the best and who isn't. That'll put an end to all the bickering. Do you agree to ending our rivalry this way?"
Amber said, "Sure. Whoever wins the contest will be the best. We won't need to fight any more, since we'll know ourselves who is the best. Now, what kind of a contest is this going to be?"
Crissy said, "It'll be a stomach punching contest. We'll hit each other taking turns alternately. The first one who gives up, loses."
Amber said, "Fine. Rules?"
"They're simple. We hit each other anywhere in the stomach. Since you already had the first 'punch,' I think it's only fair that I hit you first. Now, strip down to your bikini."
Both girls took off their outer clothes. Amber's bikini had a thin but traditional top that covered most of her breasts. The bikini bottom was cut very low on her, and the thin straps rode low on her hips exposing almost all of her stomach. The bikini was green, of a shade that clashed with her blond hair. However, few of the guys on the beach seemed to notice the color clash, for obvious reasons. Crissy's bikini was a black string bikini that actually matched her raven hair. It consisted of little more than three triangles covering the appropriate parts of her anatomy, held together by black strings. Neither of the two were shy about their bodies, so they were both comfortable in these revealing bikinis on a crowded beach, even though they got almost continuous stares from the guys.
It was only with their bodies thus exposed that you could see the differences in their build. With their cheerleading uniforms or even their gymnastic leotards hiding their build, their bodies looked practically identical. However with the skimpy bikinis, you could see a few differences. Crissy's upper body and breasts were almost identical to Amber's, as were her legs, though neither of them had the usual massively muscled upper legs of a gymnast. They shared the same narrow, small hips and small, firm buttocks. It was in the stomach area that you could see the most differences.
Crissy had a firm but cylindrical upper abdomen area. You could see the muscle sheets from just below her rib cage down to her thin waist, but there was no definition to her abs. Her stomach went just about straight down from the ribs before it started to curve inward a little just above the navel. She had taut skin over the muscles, but no fat at all. This gave the impression that she was all muscle in this area, which was quite true. Below the navel, her stomach flattened and widened out a little to match her hips, but not so much as to become concave. Her lower stomach was still solid with muscle bulk visible through the skin, again with no fat, though there was no real definition in the muscle groups such as you would see in a body builder.
Amber had a slightly different build in the stomach area. Her upper stomach started to become concave just below her ribs, showing a distinct rib line. Though she had about the same muscle bulk as Crissy, the muscle groups were very prominent and defined. You could see a distinct cleft down the middle of her stomach to her navel and well beyond that on into her lower stomach. Each of the planes of her abdominal muscle sheets was visibly defined, as were her obliques. She had noticeable, deep separations running down the sides of her stomach, further defining her abs and obliques. Her lower stomach, however, was flat. It did not have the slightly rounded muscle tone that Crissy had. Instead it was deeply indented, though you could still see the muscles in this area. Again as with Crissy, her skin was taut over her stomach muscles. You could see every muscle working as she moved.
Crissy had the first turn. She told Amber to back up against a blank space on the concrete wall and put her hands behind her head. Crissy brought back her fist and punched Amber below the ribs, right in the solar plexus. Amber grunted a little and bent over slightly, but appeared to be otherwise unaffected. Crissy had expected that, as she had never thrown a punch before, and she knew that Amber had a well-muscled stomach. She had planned to keep pounding on Amber's upper stomach area until her stomach muscles were weakened and one of her punches eventually broke through Amber's muscles into her solar plexus, ending the contest. Crissy thought she could take the same kind of punches that she was planning on giving, at least until she won.
It was now Amber's turn. Crissy realized she had made a mistake when Amber told her to lie down on the floor. When Crissy had told Amber that they would "hit" each other in the stomach, Crissy had been thinking only about punches. The position she was in on the floor with her hands behind her head and her stomach completely exposed made her realize that there were many other ways to "hit" someone in the stomach. She should have been more detailed in the rules. However it was too late, and the same rules would now apply to Amber. It was now an "anything goes" type of contest. Crissy flexed her stomach muscles as tightly as she could and awaited the blow.
When Crissy was set, Amber raised her foot up and brought it down solidly into Crissy's stomach just above the navel. Crissy jerked her hands from behind her head and grabbed her stomach. It had hurt a lot more than she thought it would, but she was already beginning to feel the pain go away. She noticed that Amber had brought her foot down into her stomach flatly. This caused the blow to be spread out over a lot of the stomach muscles. And, Amber had aimed her stomp at the strongest part of Crissy's stomach. It seems that Amber was no more of an expert on this kind of fighting than she was.
Amber was hoping to do more damage than she did with the stomp. Crissy's original blow to her upper stomach had hurt a lot, but she did not want to show it. She still was a little sore there. And now it was Crissy's turn again.
When Crissy had recovered, she told Amber to stand against the wall again. Crissy thought she would stay with her original game plan for at least a little while longer. She punched Amber's upper stomach again, but this time with greater success. Amber grabbed her stomach and bent forward, falling to the floor. Crissy had changed her tactics slightly after thinking about what Amber had done in her stomp. The first punch Crissy had thrown had hit Amber's stomach with her fist flat on. For this second punch, she held the first section of her fingers straight, and bent her hand at the second knuckles. This put all the force of her blow into the points of her knuckles. She also tilted her hand parallel to the centerline of Amber's body and punched just under her ribs, in a sensitive spot. Seeing the effect of this second blow, Crissy quickly learned the lesson of proper placement of a punch and concentration of the force of the punch into the minimal frontal area.
Amber was in trouble. Here she had only taken two punches and she was already in a lot of pain. At this rate, she would be out of the contest on the next blow. Amber stayed on the floor quite a while as she massaged her stomach and thought about what she could do. Fortunately for her, Crissy had made no rules about how long she had to recover. So she took her time getting up, until the stomach pain had subsided to a dull ache. She told Crissy to lie down on her back again. She had seen this done in movies and TV, so she decided to see if she could do it too. She jumped up a little and came down sideways into the middle of Crissy's stomach with the point of her elbow. She hurt her ribs a bit when she landed since she didn't land properly, but it had the desired effect. Crissy rolled up into a ball holding her stomach and gasped for air.
Now it was Crissy who was in trouble. She was having trouble breathing and her stomach was numb from the pain. She knew that she would be feeling the effects of this blow for a long time. She seriously thought about giving up. Instead, she decided to wait a while to see if the pain went away. Slowly it did, though not fast enough for her. She was still a little wobbly when she finally stood up.
Crissy didn't want Amber to think she wasn't recovered, but she was still in a lot of pain from Amber's last blow. She made up her mind to try the same type of strike, since it didn't really rely on strength (which she had little of at this point), but on athletic prowess and timing. She told Amber to lie down, just as she had done.
From Crissy's stance, Amber could tell that she was going to get an elbow to her own stomach, so she flexed her stomach muscles as hard as she could make them. When the blow came, she could not stand the pain. Crissy had landed the point of her elbow low into Amber's flat, lower stomach.
It had been an almost perfect maneuver. Crissy came down with her arm stiff and her elbow pointed into Amber's stomach. Her body was still in the air when her elbow buried itself into Amber's stomach, which put much of the weight of her body right at the point of the elbow.
Amber did not cry out, as she was not able to make a sound, the pain was so intense. She grabbed her lower stomach and curled up whimpering. She did not think about giving up. She could not think about anything but the pain. She almost blacked out from the pain. Slowly she started to come back out of the pain-induced haze. She was at first aware of a noise, which gradually resolved itself into Crissy's voice. Crissy was asking her if she was all right. Crissy was also asking if she wanted to stop the contest. This latter question had an immediate effect on Amber. It snapped her around to full clarity. Though she was still a little woozy and the pain in her lower stomach was only slowly fading away, she was again thinking clearly. She told Crissy through gasps that she would continue, but to give her a minute to recover.
Amber had used the time while she was recovering wisely. She decided on an attack that she thought would end the contest then and there. She slowly got up, thought she remained a little bent over at the lower abdomen. She was breathing heavily, and noticed that Crissy was also. She told Crissy to lie down on her side with her hands over her head.
Crissy knew immediately what was going to happen. With her in this position with her stomach exposed and open at floor level, she was going to be kicked in the stomach.
Amber didn't disappoint her. She stepped back a step from Crissy, jumped forward onto her left foot and swung her right foot forward into a high-speed kick right into the middle of Crissy's stomach at the navel.
Crissy was only aware of the pain for quite a while. When the pain had subsided a little, she became aware of a rather peculiar sound. On gaining a little more clarity of mind, she realized that it was Amber whimpering. It took a little more time and a lot of determination to actually roll over toward the direction of the sound, as Amber was behind her. What Crissy saw was Amber sitting on the floor gingerly massaging her right foot and whimpering a little. It took still more time before Crissy's mind became clear enough for her to actually understand what she was seeing. Amber had kicked hard into Crissy's flexed and hard stomach with her bare foot, more specifically, her bare toes. While Crissy didn't think Amber's toes were broken, they would probably be sore for quite some time.
Amber looked up from massaging her toes and said, "They hurt!"
The ridiculousness of the situation was just too much for Crissy. She burst out laughing, though her stomach hurt a lot every time she laughed. Amber, on seeing this, also burst out laughing, with similar pains.
For the next several minutes, both of them alternately laughed at each other and groaned from the pain. Finally, the laughter died down to a dull chuckle to match the dull pain in their stomachs. They helped each other over to the bed, where Crissy looked at Amber's toes. They were just stubbed, and were not badly injured. Amber would limp a little for the next day, but would be fine after that. They then took turns massaging the pain from each other's stomachs where they had been hit not more than an hour ago. Each knew exactly where to massage the other, since each knew where they had originally created the pain. They both eventually just fell asleep on the bed due to the exertion, both still in their bikinis. Though the rivalry between them was settled, neither one of them could have predicted this as the outcome of the contest meant to settle it.
Epilog:
Because of their excellent physical condition, they both recovered completely from the contest within a couple days. After some discussion, both Crissy and Amber realized that, though they were experts in gymnastics and in top physical condition, they had not really been prepared for the fight. Neither of them would be really effective in a fight. They both decided to take up kickboxing as a sport, though it was very much different than gymnastics. This eventually worked to their advantage, as they incorporated some of their gymnastics into their kickboxing matches, and a few of their kickboxing moves ended up in their gymnastics routines, to the delight of the audience and the approval of the judges.
They kept on with their stomach punching "contests," though it was more for fun, and to see exactly how much each could actually take. One of their favorite contests they dubbed "Human Punching Bag," which they used as training for kickboxing. Eventually, they got to the point where they were throwing and taking stomach punches much harder than any they had delivered during their first contest, with little effect.
About a year after the original contest, there was the incident in the parking lot.
But that is another story...