If you'd asked them, they may not have been able to tell you why they chose the local elementary school playground to have their belly punching contest. It just seemed safer, somehow. It was a large, open space, and when it wasn't recess, there was never anyone around. They knew, of course, that just inside the school building, there were hundreds of kindergardeners and early grade school children learning their ABCs, but that didn't seem significant at the moment.
Their names were Brad and Lewis, each only 18 years old, and for weeks -- despite the fact that they were great friends -- they'd been arguing about which of them had the stronger belly. Well, there was only one way to find out...
"Are you ready for this, Brad?"
"Ready, Lewis!"
But before even one of them had the opportunity to swing his fist into the other's belly, they heard the piercing whistle of a security guard.
"Halt!" yelled the guard, an old man with gray whiskers coming from his ears. "Just what in tarnation do you reckon you two young hooligans are doin'?"
Brad and Lewis immediately backed away, feigning innocence. "Nothing! Nothing! We're just hanging out!"
"I weren't born yesterday, no sir. You've got to come with me! I'll take you to the principal and she can decide what to do with ya! Now come on or I'll call the cops and you can sit in juvie!"
Brad looked at Lewis and shrugged. It wasn't as though they were doing anything illegal, after all, what was the worst that could happen? Besides, everyone knew that the elementary school principal was Ms. Cindy Rose, one of the sweetest, prettiest women in town.
Ms. Rose was quite petite and always had her blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail. She was well-loved by all of the school children under her care. That afternoon she was whistling to herself while going through teacher evaluations, when the security guard arrived with Brad and Lewis in tow.
"Hello, Sam," she said sweetly. "What's going on?"
"Ah, well.." Sam the security guard blushed and looked at his feet. "I'm terribly sorry to interrupt you, Ms. Rose, ah, but these two young, er, boys, were out carousing on the field, trespassing they was, having a fight, and I thought best to bring them to you."
"Oh, thank you, Sam. They look like sweet boys, I'm sure they couldn't have been up to any harm. I'll take it from here."
Sam continued looking to his feet. "Very good, ma'am." He bowed and left.
Once the door had closed, Ms. Rose stood and smoothed out her pink, polka-dotted dress. "So, you were fighting?" she asked, with a slight smile.
Brad looked to see if Lewis was going to say anything, He wasn't, so he said, "Yes, ma'am."
"I see. And what was it you were fighting over?"
"Er... who was stronger, I suppose."
"Interesting. Why not simply see who can lift the most amount of weight?"