Side Story 21.2: Boxing Event – part 1.2

The bell rang, ending the first round, and the referee told them to back away.

In her corner, Sophia smiled at the curious Mia, who asked her, "What are you aiming for? I think you are winning by points because you always hit him, and he never landed a single punch on you, but still!"

"I am trying to see how long it takes for him to blow up. He was too confident, and now he is starting to see that this fight won't end like he wanted. He probably thought fighting girls would be easy for him."

Mia gave Sophia a few sips from the water bottle she was holding while glancing at the other side of the ring. In there, the boy was talking with his coach, and according to what they were saying to each other and their physical resemblances, they were father and son.

What Mia found more peculiar was that the father was huge. He had a massive build with tattoos on his forearms and neck, and by what he was saying, he sounded like a fighter as well, but Mia wasn't sure if he was a boxer or not. What she was sure of was that he was up to no good, and even the referee got worried when the man said, "What are you doing? Hit her already! She is just a chick! Just like we trained, one, two, KO! A series as fast as lightning!"

"But I can barely lift my arms because they are dormant! That stupid girl keeps evading, and she then punches my arms!"

"No excuses! Hit her, or when we get home, I am going to hit you! I didn't come here to see you lose to some girl! Make her cry! Make her call for her mommy!"

With a worried look on her face, Mia spoke in a low voice, "You better watch out for that kid. He might forget this is light contact and actually hurt you."

Sophia smiled and answered loudly enough for the boy and his father to hear her: "How could he ever hurt me? He is just a boy! I am used to knocking out grownups! A kid like him? I will eat him as a snack and spit out the bones! And when he gets home, his father over there will hit him because he lost! You know, that is kind of strange, because my father would rather kill himself than hit me! I guess some guys should never become parents!"

The man looked back and asked, almost shouting, "What did you say, kid?"

"You heard me. No wonder your boy has his head all messed up with such a marvellous example at home! But don't worry, I am going to fix that broken head of his! And if you want, I can also fix yours with some good punches!"

The man stared at the worried Mia and said, "You better put a gag in your kid's mouth, or one of these days she is going to get what she deserves!"

After a deep breath to calm down, Mia asked, "Why don't you try to gag her yourself when this fight is over? Like that, she will have all the reason to send you to a hospital, and no one would accuse her of excessive force."

"I would rather gag you and use you as a sex doll, blondie!"

While slowly shaking her head, Mia said, "No class at all. When you don't have arguments, you resort to insults." She then turned to the serious Sophia and said, "End this quickly so that we can get out of here. I don't like to be around plebeians."

While holding the tips of her shorts with both gloves, Sophia made an exaggerated bow and said, "Your wish is my command, milady. It will honour me to rid your sight of these commoners."

The referee signalled for the beginning of the next round, and both coaches left the ring. The bell rang, and the boy ran forward, trying to catch Sophia off-guard.

It was no use. Sophia took two steps left and hit the boy's arm again. He threw another punch, another hit in his arm. He took one step back and started shaking both arms, trying to ease the pain. And that was Sophia's cue. She hit him with a series of punches, all aiming at his arms while avoiding the gloves and his body. Only the arms mattered, in particular those two sets of muscles.

From the other corner, the tattooed man kept shouting for his son to fight back, or he would get a massive beating at home, and Sophia kept hitting the boy with not enough force for the referee to say she was hitting too hard but with strength enough to make his arms hurt from so many hits.

The boy became desperate. The continuous punches in his arms and his father threatening him made him lose focus and completely forget that he was boxing.

To the referee's surprise and to everyone in the gym who was watching the fight, he tried to hit Sophia's head with a sidekick, which she evaded at the last second.

The referee shouted for him to stop because kicks weren't allowed, and Sophia said, "You are about to lose, and your father will beat your sorry little ass! I bet you will cry like a little girl!"

The boy lost it. He tried to hit Sophia with a straight kick to her face, with her taking a step left and immediately stepping in closer. A powerful uppercut took him by surprise, and the boy fell to the floor, completely knocked out.

The referee looked at the fainted boy, then at Sophia, not knowing what to say, and she took out her mouth protector and said, "What? It was self-defence! My body just moved because I felt myself in danger! He tried to kick me! Twice! When someone tries to hurt me, I hurt them! Simple! You either disqualify him or you count to ten! Do your job, ref!"

The referee approached the boy and shook him gently a couple of times, then he declared a knockout. Outside the ring, the boy's father was shouting threats to the referee and Sophia, with her smiling at him.

Behind Jack Cross, the man who introduced himself as an MMA coach, said, "Oh, that isn't good! He is about to do something stupid!"

With a puzzled look, Jack asked, "What do you mean? That guy? Who is he?"

"Probably someone who is too violent for his own good, judging by his body language and by the mess he is creating in there! A professional fighter would never lose his temper outside the ring like that. Shit! There he goes! You better go help your daughter!"

"I don't think it is necessary. She can take care of herself, and Mia is also there. He won't even know what hit him if he goes after one of them!"

The MMA coach blinked a few times, not understanding why Jack was so calm when Sophia was in such danger at the hands of that angry man.

In the ring, the muscular man was already grabbing the top rope, with the referee stopping him from entering the ring and the referee who was in charge of the bell trying to grab the man's leg.

Sophia was leisurely removing her gloves, and while giving them to the worried Mia, she said, "Do you mind holding this for me? There is a guy over there that I need to knock out."

Before Mia could say anything, she saw, in horror, the man kicking the referee, who was grabbing his leg and then punching the other, making him fall flat on the ground.

Then Mia saw a shadow moving at an absurd speed. Sophia ran to the man, and before he could enter the ring, she jumped.

Sophia landed with one foot on the top rope, the other on the man's shoulder, and hit the top of his head with her two elbows with such force that he bent down, only for her to grab the back of his head and hit his face with her right knee. Three consecutive hits broke his nose and a bunch of his teeth. She then jumped back while the man fainted over the top rope, half his body out of the ring, half inside.

She then leisurely went to the dizzy referee, helped him get up, and asked, "Are you alright? Probably better to call the police, no? Before that guy wakes up and tries to hit someone."

"Sure… thanks… What the hell is wrong with that guy?"

"No idea. Maybe he doesn't like losing?"

While the referee was declaring Sophia the winner of the match, a nurse was rushing for the fainted boy, and a group of parents was grabbing the tattooed man and making sure he was out and was no longer a threat to anyone, the man behind Jack said, "What the heck was that? She knows Muay Thai as well?"

"I know that move with a different name, and I also know the guy who taught her that. Now you see why I wasn't worried? She can take care of herself."

"She sure does! Man, I would love to train her! She will be an amazing fighter when she grows up!"

…

By the end of the afternoon, Sophia's team was in the centre of the boxing ring, all five of them waving at the crowd around, who were cheering for them.

The Principal came, and with a forced smile, he spoke to the microphone while he was putting another medal around Sophia's neck. "Congratulations on winning the boxing event, Sophia Cross! And as a side note, thank you for also stopping the violence that happened right after your last match."

He then gave her team a trophy and announced, "And this is a special trophy because this team won every single event over these past three days! This Competition always had this trophy as a special prize, but for all these years, no team has ever earned it! Until today! Do any of you want to say a few words of appreciation?"

Without hesitating, Sophia grabbed the microphone, looked at the crowd, and said, "I just want to say to all the students in this school, those who for the last few weeks have been calling me the school's hero! Go get a life, cowards! You all know how much Eliza Francis and her gang bullied me! How many times she called me bad names! How many times she threw mud at me! My friend Emma Pearson had to cut a good portion of her pretty hair because Eliza stuck chewing gum on her head! Many of you also suffered plenty of bullying at their hands, and the rest who weren't bullied did nothing to stop them! You all feared three little girls! Three little girls whose parents were paying this rotten Principal to close his eyes to all the damage those three were doing!"

She then faced the surprised Principal and continued, "Instead of congratulating me and my team for our victory, you should announce your resignation! You sold-out! Make room for a better person, one who won't sell his conscience because of money and would never let three girls bully so many students! You and all these rotten, dumb teachers, who, like you, pretended to see nothing! School is supposed to be a safe place for us students! You and all these teachers made this school a torture! You should be ashamed of yourselves!" She then faced the crowd and shouted, "And to all the parents out there, what kind of parenting are you doing? How can you raise your sons and daughters to become cowards and not even try to stop three little girls? I could have killed those three if I wanted when they were bullying me, but instead, I tried very hard never to react with violence because, like you could see today, I can easily knock out a very big man!"

The silence in the gym was overwhelming, but Sophia didn't finish. "Why your kids never stopped Eliza baffles me! If only two or four students joined forces, they would never have so much power in this school! Even with their parents paying the Principal! And to the dumb students here, I hope you all remember this day, because I will be in this school until I graduate, and I will remember every single one of you about what happened here! From now on, if even one of you bullies a student in this school, I will beat the crap out of your sorry little ass, and then I will go to your house, and I will beat your parents to death! So long, dumbasses! I got enough of this stupidity!"

Sophia dropped the microphone and walked out of the ring, straight to Mia Mills, who was waiting for her in front of the changing room.

She opened the door for her and asked in a low voice, "Feeling better now?"

"Actually, I am. I took an enormous weight off my chest. So, what about dinner? Any suggestion?"

Mia answered while placing one arm over Sophia's shoulders, "You won the competition; you chose."

"You know, I couldn't have won today if it weren't for you, so thanks."

"No problem. This was rather fun. We should enter fighting matches more often!"

"Yeah, but next time, I want full contact! I want to make my opponent bleed!" Sophia said with a wicked smile.

"You crazy little girl! Hahaha!"