Pygmalion (Not real title!)

by Solaña in World of Books

Pygmalion

"Hey guys."
Jeremy looked up as his cousin, Lisa, walked up to them. She was sixteen, like him, and they'd grown up playing in the mud. Admittedly, she was a bit of a tomboy, but a girl all the same.
Anyways, he was currently in an argument with his best friend, Jake, on whether or not a basketball player could beat a football player in an arm wrestling match. Due to the fact that Jeremy was a basketball player and Jake was a football player, it was obvious which side Jeremy was on.
"Come on Jake, you gotta admit that not all football players are bulky, over-muscled jocks. I mean, your not."
Jake narrowed his eyes. "Low blow man. Okay, so not all football players are super strong. But that doesn't mean they don't have a lot of muscle. Everyone knows basketball players don't have major muscles unless they constantly work out."
Before Jeremy could respond, Lisa interrupted, saying,
"Wow, y'all are sooo kind! Thanks for saying hello Jeremy, to your own cousin and then introducing me to your friend Jake here. And since you were oh so kind to do me that favor, I''ll teach y'all a little lesson: When you've got an argument with certain elements, like a football player and a basketball player, you can easily solve said argument by putting it to the test. Catch my drift?"
Jeremy grinned, while Jake frowned. "Who said this was your argument to enter? Besides, your just a girly-girl. What could you know about muscles and whether or not a basketball player could beat a football player? "
Jeremy whistled and took a step back. This could get ugly.

Lisa rolled her eyes. "Give me a break. Lemme guess, you're one of those pathetic guys who think girls are physically inferior to guys right? You should know, that I've beat every one of my cousins, boy or girl."

" So? I know all your guys cousins. And none of them were football players. There's no way you could beat me. And besides, they probably just let you win." Jake replied.

Lisa narrowed her eyes. " Fine. Let's settle this right now."
"Fine."

They sat down at the outside lunch tables in Jeremy's backyard. They assumed position, Jeremy in between them.

"Okay, standard rules. No elbows off the table, and in order to win, you have to shove the other person's arm all the way into the table. On my mark. Ready...set...GO!"
Lisa and Jake hands immediately felt tension. Jake had expected Lisa's arm to be weak and easy to slam into the table. But instead of instant submission, it was like his fist had met an iron wall. He'd planned to put all his force into the first wave of pushing her hand down, so his hand was taken off guard and she took advantage of this, managing to edge his fist further down. But he rebounded, and managed to lock there arms back into an upright position.
Lisa knew she was likely to lose, because she was a girl, who didn't do weight training every day and slam into at least 150-pounds a day at football practice. But Jake needed to realize that she wasn't about to go down without a fight. She'd played fighting games with her five boy cousins when they were younger, and her greatest advantage had been surprise. Which was why she was able to shove his arm down a bit. And she did climb trees and playscapes with her cousins. Basically, she'd developed some definite muscle over the years, and Jake was going to have a hard time beating her.
They held position for five straight minutes, and then Jeremy asked Jake, "So,how you doing so far Lisa? Jake holding up okay against you?"
Jake's head snapped up, causing him to lose some concentration. As he began to come up with a retort, his amount of strength stored against Lisa lessened.
It was just what Lisa needed. She whammed his arm into the table and leapt up with joy. Jake stared at his hand in shock, then looked up accusingly at Jeremy.
"Hey, that's now fair! You distracted me!"

Lisa smirked. "So? You shouldn't of devoted any of your attention to him. It was a ploy to take away from either of ours' concentration. You just happened to fall for the bait."
"Whatever."

Jeremy grinned. "Come on man, admit it. You got beat by a "girly-girl" as you said."

"Okay, fine. But the way she won was underhanded. And there's no way she'd be able to take that kind of heat on the field. Look at her! She's a skinny twig!"

"Hey man, you don't know her. She can pin me and any guy who's ever challenged her to the ground in less than a minute."

"Okay, then I dare you," he said, turning to Lisa, " to tryout for the summer football team next week. And so they don't go easy on you, they can't know you're a girl."

"Whoa, wait a sec-" Jake started.

Lisa silenced him with a hand. She regarded Jake quietly. Here was the perfect chance to put this guy in his place. She'd show him that she could go against a guy and survive. Not all girls were "girly-girls".

"Fine," she said, " but y'all have to teach me to act like a guy. There are some things a girl can't abandon, no matter how much time she spent with barbarians. And there's some other stuff to consider. I have to register with the coach. And it has to be face to face. I'm a girl. Exactly how am I going to manage that?"