It was a warm, sunny day, and Leif and Skippy were strolling away from Flip's Food and Fuel, sipping on their Flippies. They made their way to the park and found a bench to sit on, taking a break from the heat and enjoying their drinks. Skippy placed the drink container between his bare legs, as some of the liquid from the side dripped on his black bike shorts. He scanned the park, taking in all the sights and sounds of the bustling activity around him. Leif, still holding onto his drink, turned to Skippy and let out a sigh.
"I'm bored, there's nothing to do," he complained.
Skippy thought for a moment before suggesting, "Maybe we could fix your dad's van again.
" Leif shook his head, "Nah, it's fine for now, and he and my mom are out anyways."
Skippy then offered an alternative, "Maybe we could take a nap." Leif rolled his eyes, "We're not taking a nap," he retorted. Skippy shrugged, "I was just thinking, if we took a nap, we could wake up to something to do."
The two boys slumped down onto the bench, sweat starting to bead on their skin as they felt the heat of the sun bearing down on them. Leif let out a sigh, his thoughts drifting to the idea of taking a nap. But he quickly shook the idea away, "Maybe we could go swimming?" he suggested, trying to shake off the drowsiness.
Skippy raised an eyebrow, "Isn't your family banned from the public pool?" he questioned, a hint of amusement in his voice.
Leif scowled at his best friend, his face flushing red with embarrassment. "It's not even really my fault, everyone else was being weird," he grumbled.
"You were playing with shaving cream," Skippy replied, a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips.
"We could go to a different pool, and I'll be with you and not my family so..." Leif said, his eyes pleading with his friend to agree.
Skippy shook his head, "Heck no, the rec. center sucks, and today, their three pools are busy. One has the old people swimming and later the babies learning to swim, the other has water polo going on, and the last one is open to the public, but it's gotta be crowded," he said, before taking a sip through his straw.
Leif let out a sigh of relief as he realized his friend was right. Going back to his house and dealing with his siblings would be a pain. He took a sip of his own drink and looked around the park, searching for something to do.
The two boys continued sitting on the bench, finishing their Flippees and looking around the park for something to do. Skippy stood up and threw away his empty drink container. As he turned around, he caught a glimpse of a brightly colored flyer tacked onto a nearby tree. He ran over to look.
"Leif, check this out!" Skippy exclaimed, holding up the flyer for his friend to see. The flyer was for a mud wrestling competition happening in two weeks. Both boys' eyes lit up as they read through the details.
"We have to do this!" Leif said excitedly. "It'll be so much fun, and we'll finally have something to do."
Skippy nodded in agreement. "And we can start practicing right away," he added, already imagining the thrill of competing in front of a crowd.
The two boys high-fived each other, their boredom now replaced with excitement and determination. Leif tossed his empty Flippee container into a nearby trash can and the two of them walked towards Skippy's house. The heat of the sun beat down on them as they walked, but the inside of the house offered a cool respite from the sweltering weather. Skippy's parents were out, leaving the boys alone to plan their mud wrestling competition.
"If we're gonna practice, then we're gonna need mud," Skippy said, a hint of excitement in his voice. Leif nodded, a smile spreading across his face. He too loved the feeling of mud squishing between his toes. Skippy got up from the floor where they had been laying and readjusted his black bike shorts, pulling them up to sit higher on his hips.
"You don't mind if we practice here, do you?" Skippy asked, gesturing to the backyard. "Remember my dad made us that spot where we can play in the mud. I just need to wet it down and make it nice and muddy," he added. Leif nodded, grateful for the opportunity to practice in Skippy's backyard. It would be better than trying to do it at his own house, where his siblings would surely get in the way.
Skippy led Leif through the back door of his house and out into the backyard. Skippy's family had a larger backyard than Leif's family, since this house was in a different part of town and it had a lead into a part of the woods.
The yard had a wooden fence around it, and a gate that led into the woods. The rest of the fence was dotted with colorful flowers, both wildflowers and some Skippy's mother had planted, and shrubs. There were a few mature trees scattered throughout, providing shade and a home for the local birds. The grass was a deep green, well-manicured and soft to the touch.
Along the back fence, there was a small shed where Skippy's father kept the gardening tools. There was a garden where both parents grew tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, and other vegetables. A small pond sat off to the side, surrounded by tall reeds and lily pads.
A wooden deck stretched out from the back of the house, providing a shaded spot to relax and take in the view. There were some of Skippy's toys in the yard, but the important thing for the boys right then was the mud pit. Currently, it was a bed of dry dirt, in a spot just bigger than a kiddie pool, but not by much. The two boys walked over it to it, grinning as they walked, Skippy took a whiff of the air.
Skippy scanned the yard for a moment, searching for the spigot. He then walked over to a side wall of the house and grabbed the black hose from its spindle. Carrying it over to the mud pit, he turned to Leif. "Dude, you gotta turn it on," Leif said, turning his cap around to get the brim to the front. Skippy felt his face flush with embarrassment, and playfully punched Leif in the shoulder. "How about you turn it on, then," he said with a grin. Leif stuck his tongue out at Skippy and walked over to the spigot, turning on the faucet.
Then, he waited for a moment to let the hot water run out before starting to spray the dirt carefully to avoid splatters. He let the water seep into the dirt and Leif came back to help stir it with his hands. Skippy walked around, evenly spraying the dirt, watching as it transformed into its squishy, dark, and rich state. He wanted the mud to be the perfect consistency: flexible and moveable, yet goopy and sticky enough for the desired effect.
"There, it's done!" Skippy said, wiping his brow.
Leif washed his hands by spraying them with the hose, then he walked over to the mut pit and put a finger in it and pulled it out, looking it like he was an expert on mud. Then he popped that finger into his mouth, swigging it for a moment before spitting it out. "Good mud!" He shouted.
The other boy threw his hands up, rolled his eyes, and went to turn off the water. The blond boy went to touch the mud, it was nice and cool. His skin was a little red and sweat was pouring down his neck, chest, and arms. If he had been wearing a shirt under his shortsalls, it would have been completely soaked.
Skippy came back and Leif asked him," Can we take a break, inside, I'm dying?"
Sure, Dude, maybe we can get a little something to eat too," Skippy answered.
"Nothing too much, don't want barf while wrestling," Leif replied but paused to think, "Even though it would be cool to see."
The two boys trudged up the wooden deck, their shoes' bottoms leading smudged footprint of mud as they walked. Skippy pulled the screen door and the sliding glass door and walked inside the home, with Leif following close behind. Inside, Skippy plopped down on the floor next to the door and began to take off his shoes. The 7-year-old's tongue sticking out the left side of his mouth as he untied the laces. Then the tossed them over and took his unsoiled socks off and laid them in his shoes. Leif, who didn't wear socks, simply slipped off his shoes and left them next to Skippy's. The took a moment to let the cool air of the house wash over them.
Next, they walked into the kitchen, where Skippy pressed the soap dispenser, squirted some into his hands, then squirted some into Leif's palms. They washed their hands at the gleaming stainless-steel sink, the warm water running on their skin and the dirty water going down into the drain.
The refrigerator was a sleek black and stainless-steel model, with French doors on the top and a freezer drawer on the bottom. Skippy opened the doors and grabbed two bottles of water from the left door's cubby. He handed one to Leif and twisted off the top of his own, chugging most of it before letting out a long breath. Leif rubbed the cold bottle against his face for a moment before opening it. Skippy crouched down, opening the freezer drawer, and digging around for something. He was on his knees, his tank top riding up over his bike shorts, as he hunched further and dug. Eventually, he emerged with two pepperoni and cheese flavored microwaveable turnovers.
Sitting at stools at the black marble counter of the kitchen they ate the turnovers off paper plates. Skippy took slower bites, while Leif tore at his like a lion at a zebra. The kitchen was only filled with the sounds of the fridge humming, the ice maker making ice once, the sound of the soda in the soda cans next to Leif and Skippy fizzing, and the boys' chewing.
"You know?" Leif said with some food in his mouth, "I wonder if they'll give us a cash price?"
Skippy turned his head away from looking at his best friend, "You could have waited to say something," he moaned.
Leif swallowed, "Sorry, I forgot you didn't like that," he said with a chuckle.
"Cash would be cool, I could buy a hydration backpack for my bike," Skippy said.
"We don't know how much, you could buy a whole new bike!" this time Leif waited until after swallowing. He raised his arms above his head his grin showing his missing front tooth. "Heck, we could up some for our first car, we're only 9 years from driving!"
The blonde boy then put his left hand on Skippy's shoulder and patted him, "We could buy two cars, then trade them back and forth!"
Skippy smiled his buck tooth showing in his grin, but he shook his head, his long brown hair going back and forth and his lime green baseball cap moving a little. "We probably shouldn't get to head of ourselves, Dude."
They had finished with their snack and went to Skippy's bedroom. The room had a brown carpeting. His bed was in the center of the room, the backboard leaned up against a wall. There was a TV that was on a dresser that was In front of the wall opposite the one from the bed. His room was painted a light shade of yellow. He had posters of bikes, skateboarders, Peanuts characters, and of an SUV. The room had a big window that would let in sunset in the mornings, it had vertical yellow blinds with purple curtains. He kept his room relatively neat, his toys were in the toybox, and his tool box was in the strange part of the room where the wall wasn't a corner instead it made the room look like a rectangle with a strange cut. His desk had a black laptop, a cup filled with pens and pencils, a hairbrush, and a car part. The room had two other doors one that led to the walk-in closet and the other that led to a connected bathroom. His bed was made up it had 3 pillows covered in light blue pillowcases, the sheets matched that color, while the comforter was black. It had a stuffed dog laying on top of one of the pillows. The nightstand was also black, and had a digital clock radio, a lamp that looked like it was made of metal painted black , with a white lampshade. There was also a hook by the bed where Skippy would put his cap at night.
"Skip, do you still have that bandage on your knee?" Leif asked.
Skippy lifted his right leg up to show him his knee that was bandage-free.
"Cool scar!" Leif squeed, "Good, we don't want any strange bandage incidents, I remember when you got that gash from falling of your bike, and bruise changed into some fun colors!"
"Nah that was a different time," Skippy said, pointing at his other leg.
Leif took off his cap to scratch his head, "Oh yeah, that's right, and there was the time you had to have three bandages on your left arm."
"There's that time you had to get stitches," Skippy added.
Leif sat down on Skippy's bed and laughed. He had has hands on his knees.
Skippy had gone to the bathroom and came back with two clean towels and some sunscreen. He lightly put the folded towels on the bed and the pink sunscreen bottle its side on top. Leif got up to his feet and unhooked the straps on his shortalls -letting them fall to the ground- leaving him wearing just his blue briefs. He took the shortalls and threw them on to the bed.
The other boy pulled down his bike shorts and took off his tank top-leaving just his green briefs on- and walked them to his bathroom, where there was a dirty clothes hamper, and came back. Next, he took his green cap and put that on the hook by the bed, Leif put his red cap on one of the bed's post.
"It's mud time!" they cheered together.
The blonde boy playfully slapped Skippy on the back and they ran out of the bedroom, through the hallway, down the stairs, through the family room, to the back door.
Opening the door, they felt the heat wash over them intensely. The wooden planks that made the deck floor were hot underneath their feet and they tip-toed ran to the set of three stairs that led down to the yard, carefully going down the stairs and finding relief in the cool, slightly damp grass. Skippy set the towels on the top stair and grabbed the sunscreen bottle.
"For tomorrow's practice I'm bringing, a spray sunscreen," Leif said wiping the goo on to his body.
"I don't think you gotta put on that much, Dude, we're going to be in mud," Skippy replied.
Leif looked down at the mess on his chest and shrugged, "At least it feels nice and cool," he said.
Then, Leif ran over to the pit. "Wait!" Skippy yelled.
"What?!" Leif whined.
"We aren't just playing in the mud like normal, we're gonna be wrestling, we might need to stretch or something," Skippy explained.
The brown-haired boy walked over to his friend and placed his right arm around his shoulder. Leif shoved off his friend's sweaty arm and turned around, "Ugh, stretches, you should like my brother, Lynn," he said.
"It's better than pulling something or whatever stretching helps, uh, stop," Skippy answered.
"So, do you know any?" Leif said crossing his arms over his abdomen.
Skippy moved his left foot back and forth and looked down at the grass and started grabbing the waistband of his briefs on the left side with his left hand, "I got it!" he finally let out, "Jumping jacks!"
The other boy raised an eyebrow, his arms still crossed, "Jumping Jacks?" he questioned.
Skippy's face turned light red and was nervously smiling, his front buck tooth showing, and was snapping the right side of his waistband, "I think the point is were supposed ta make our bodies lose or something."
"You don't know, do you?" Leif said.
Skippy looked down and sighed, "No."
Leif patted his friend on the back, "I don't know either, but I think I can remember some things Lynn did," he said.
The two boys began to stretch and warm up, with Leif leading the way. He took some time to recall what his older brother would do before major physical activity. They started with some basic arm circles, then moved on to some leg swings and high knees. They finished with some lunges and squats. They were panting by the end of it, and the best way to cool down was to jump in.
Leif jumped in first and laid down on the mud, making mud angels, it was cool and soft against his skin. He squished the mud with his fingers and toes. He sat up his legs stretched out and started to rub his chest with mud covering it before rolling over to lie chest down and making swim motions and rubbing his face with mud.
Skippy slowly got in and stood on the mud letting it squish under his feet. Leif 'washed his hair' with mud. He spotted Skippy and like a lion its prey, he watched his movement and lunged at him, Skippy saw him and started to run in the circle, Leif picked up a scoop of mud and threw some at him.
"Oh yeah?" Skippy said. He picked up some mud and threw it but missed Leif.
"Ha! Missed me!" Leif taunted.
The two boys laughed as Skippy was pushed down and rolled around in the mud, with Leif sitting on top of him. Leif rubbed mud on Skippy's chest, causing them both to laugh so hard that Skippy began to cough. They took a moment to catch their breath.
Leif was totally covered in mud, his hair was soaked in the stuff, he looked like a totally different creature. Skippy mud in his hair, splatters of mud on his face, his chest, legs, and back were covered in the liquid. Leif adjusted his undies which felt kind of saggy as he stood up, Skippy was still laying on the ground.
"Now that we're good and muddy," Leif said, "I think we should practice!"
Skippy got up and he high fived his best friend.
"Are you ready for this, Leif?" Skippy shouted, a grin on his face.
"Bring it on!" Leif shouted back, getting into his wrestling stance.
The two boys charged at each other, their bodies slamming into each other as they tried to gain the upper hand. Skippy tried to lift Leif up and toss him to the side, but Leif quickly countered by grabbing Skippy's legs and taking him down to the mud.
"Nice move, Leif!" Skippy said, laughing as he tried to get back up.
Leif then went for a body slam, but Skippy countered it by rolling out of the way and getting behind Leif. He then grabbed Leif's arms and pulled him back, trying to take him down.
he two boys continued to grapple and roll around in the mud, each trying to get the other in a submission hold. They were covered in mud from head to toe, and both were laughing and shouting as they fought.
Finally, after several minutes of wrestling, Leif managed to get Skippy in a headlock. "I win!" he shouted, triumphantly.
"No way! I demand a rematch!" Skippy said, laughing as he struggled to get out of the hold.
The boys collapsed onto the mud, panting heavily as they struggled to catch their breath. Their muscles ached and their bodies were covered in cool mud, but their bodies were warm. They lay there for a moment, unable to move as they tried to recover from the intense physical exertion.
Both were caked in mud. One couldn't tell the difference between boy and mud.
"Yo, Skip, I'm …done…for…the…day," Leif said between breaths.
Skippy couldn't even talk, he could only nod. It was getting late, and Leif would soon have to go back home. Skippy got up and walked back to the spigot to turn on the hose, he walked over and released some water and waited for the water to be cool.
"Leif, I'm going to spray you off, then you do me," he said.
Leif staggered up from the spot, slipping a little and walked over, he stood up with his arms out and legs spread. The other boy pressed the sprayer and sprayed him the water pushing the mud down his body. Skippy told him to turn around and he sprayed his back and back part of his legs. Then Skippy got closer and sprayed the boy's hair. The mud had slightly hardened in the day's heat into the hair, but he was able to get most of it out. Leif sighed, knowing he was still going to have to take a bath at home.
It was Skippy's turn to get sprayed, the cool water felt nice, and he felt lighter as the mud came off his body. He figured if anything was missed, he could take a bath. The two boys' underpants felt heavy as they were soaked, sticking to their skin as they walked to grab a towel. The two boys grabbed towels, one brown and the other blue, dried their skin, and decided to lay on the deck to dry out and relax.
The next morning, the two boys were in Skippy's backyard early. Before the day's heat could really begin, but the sky was blue enough and the sun had been up for a few hours, at least. They were already had some mud on their bodies from practicing.
"Ok, so we're going to work on our tag team moves today," Leif said, getting into his wrestling stance.
"Sounds good," Skippy said, copying Leif's stance.
The two boys charged at each other, pretending to be opponents in the ring. Leif took Skippy down with a body slam, and then tagged in Skippy, who then hit Leif with a flying elbow drop.
They continued to practice different moves and combinations, tagging each other in and out of the ring. Skippy hit Leif with a powerslam, and then Leif came in and hit Skippy with a flying crossbody.
As they practiced, they started to get more and more into character, shouting and taunting each other like they were in a real match.
"You can't handle this! We're the best tag team in the mud pit!" Skippy shouted, as he and Leif double-teamed their imaginary opponent.
After a few hours of practice, the two boys were covered in mud and exhausted, but they were also grinning from ear to ear.
"That was so much fun!" Leif said, as they sat down on the grass to catch their breath.
"Yeah, we're going to be unstoppable in the ring," Skippy said, high-fiving Leif.
They continued to practice their tag team moves and work on their strategy, for most the day until they felt they could do no more.
AN: This was going to be a part of different thing I was working on, but it grew its own life, so here's a the start of what will be a few chapters story. I wanted to do a story about Leif and Skippy thought it would be fun (also there will be someone else you'll see later) I was wondering what I could do with Leif , I took Lana's love of Mud and decided to also have Leif have it then, wanted to figure out what I could do with that, and looked up ideas and went with mud wrestling , and thought "let's try it" . I hope you enjoyed this start.