The next few days were the same: Leif would get up early after breakfast ride his bike or borrow his twin brother's toy riding car over to Skippy's house. They would practice different moves as a duo and sometimes pretending to be opponents just to make sure they could figure out almost any attack.

"Ok, Leif. We're going to start with the double leg takedown," Skippy shouted to Leif across the pit.

Leif nodded, getting into his wrestling stance.

Skippy then charged at Leif, and as he reached him, Leif grabbed both of Skippy's legs, lifting him up and slamming him down into the mud.

"Nice one, Leif!" Skippy shouted, getting back up.

"Now it's my turn," Leif said, smiling.

Skippy then got into his stance, and Leif charged at him. As he reached Skippy, Skippy grabbed Leif's arms and pulled him down, taking him to the ground.

"Good job, Skip!" Leif said, getting back up.

The two boys continued to practice their tag team moves, each taking turns being the attacker and the defender. They worked on double leg takedowns, body slams, and submission holds.

As they practiced, they shouted out encouragement to each other and laughed as they struggled to get the upper hand.

Then, they'd rest in the yard or on the deck for a while. Sometimes they'd check out the pond and sit by it and talk. On the day Skippy's mother was home, she provided them with sandwiches and drinks outside. She sometimes would giggle catching them in the window seeing them do 'intimidating' poses in their undies outside.

Finally, at some point when their bodies would say it was time to stop, they'd spray off each other with the hose, dry out, and come inside. If there was time they'd hang out in the house watching TV or playing an easy game until Leif had to go home.

One morning, Skippy woke up and noticed that his blinds didn't seem to even a slight glow. He looked at the clock and stubbled out of bed. He went over to the window, turned the rod that opened the blinds and saw water droplets on his window and gray overcast sky. It was raining. At first, he doubted it, maybe it would go away. He hopped into his computer chair and sat behind his desk and opened his laptop. He wanted an answer and in hurried mind, his computer seemed slower to turn on. He mistyped his password once, then finally got on. He opened a browser, typed in weather and got the local results: Forecast for rain through the day, chance 100%... He leaned his head back in the chair and let out a sigh.

Later, Leif called him on the phone, and said what Skippy already knew about the weather, and that he couldn't come over. The brown-haired boy got dressed in a pair of black sweat pants and a blue long sleeve shirt and decided he do one of his hobbies for a while.

The boy went to the garage, their house had the garage connected to the house, so there was a door that could lead right into it from the house. The garage was his sanctuary. It had two large doors bifurcated with a column in the middle of the two of them. It had gray walls. One the left side was the door into the house. On that side there was some shelving and hooks they an assortment of things including some extra gardening material. There were bikes hanging on the right wall, including Skippy's bike which was dark blue with the down tube painted red with flames and two cards in the spokes. The back had a work bench with tools hanging up and a red tool cabinet. That was his favorite part of the garage after his bike. There was a door that led to the backyard, as well.

Also, in there at the time, was his mother's SUV was in there, parked where the front was facing the lifting doors. It was a light blue with wood paneling, an older model SVU well-loved and well cared for. He loved it and couldn't wait to drive it one day. It was there, but his mother wasn't, that meant that his father had taken his mother to work, and that also meant she knew about the rain.

He smiled at the SUV and rubbed its finder. "I guess it's time for me to check on you, huh?" he said to it.

Leif and he were young boys who both found fixing machines, like cars and bikes interesting, it was how he met his friend. When Leif's family's van broke down at the grocery store, Skippy and his mom were walking to her car with their shopping cart, Skippy was curious to see a boy working under the vehicle. Someone who had the same interest he had, they'd been friends since.

The rain sound like plunks on the roof of the garage, it was on an off through the late morning. Skippy was checking his mom's car. He kept the oil in check on the regular, so it was fine. He spent some time looking at different things to see if he needed to do something, but he had done such a good job on keeping up on it, there was nothing to do.

The rainy day was a light bump in the road, they still had a week to go until the competition. The two boys were in the backyard, the day after the rain. The day was cooler than the days before the rain, but still warm enough. Skippy didn't have to soften up the mud at all, the sky had done a good job at that.

"I wish we could have wrestled in the rain, like, that would have been cool," Leif said.

Skippy finished moving his right hand in the middle pit, he used pinky and wiped some mud on Leif's face.

"I wonder if it rains during the match, do we continue, or they stop?" he asked.

Leif touched the mud that was on his right cheek and tried to spread it under his eyes like he was about to play football.

"Sorry folks, can't continue the mud wrestling, the rain will run the mud!" Leif announced using his best mock TV announcer voice.

The brown-haired boy was hunched over the side of the mud put rubbing mud under his eyes too, he dabbed a line under each eye. Leif walked over hunched over the mud too, placed his finger inside and started to rub mud under his chin.

"They'd have to stop if there's lightning," Skippy replied.

Leif continued to rub some more mud on the bottom part of his face-making a beard- then he pretended he was stroking it. "Very, true, they electrification of the mud from the lightning could cause people to turn into wolfus manus," he said.

"You sound like your brother, Levi," Skippy laughed.

"Why thank you Skippington, or should I say humaninus Skippington?" Leif replied.

"You should shave that thing off," Skippy joked, he looked intently at Leif, he had made a moustache with mud under his own nose.

Leif touched it, "You should really drink your chocolate milk better," he joked, "It's supposed to go in your mouth."

Skippy lightly pushed him into the mud, and Leif pulled him down and they rolled around. That's when they went back to work. They tired a move called, The Swamp Thing, where one wrestler grabs their opponent's ankle and drags them across the mud, using their momentum to fling them into the air and into the mud. First, Leif grabbed Skippy's left ankle causing him to try and stop Leif, but the other boy had switched which leg he grabbed and caused Skippy to fall and Leif pulled him, carefully across the pit. Skippy laid there, while Leif cheered.

"I wonder we're fighting people like our weight, right?" Skippy asked.

"Well, duh," he said, drawing out the duh, "Though, it's not like I couldn't take down a bigger kid." The boy added a flex after saying that.

The next thing he felt was Skippy's hands on his ankle moving his foot to cause him to stumble. They both laughed. "Nice sneak attack!" Leif cheered. They high fived each other, the sound of wet mud squishing between their hands.

The week went by, and they were feeling confident about their progress. This day was another warm day, the birds were chirping in the trees. The smell of fresh cut grass wharfed through the air, from when the next-door neighbor had mowed his backyard. The two boys were catching their breath after practicing a move.

"We're going to win this!" Leif cheered.

The boy wiped some mud from his face, but his hands were so muddy it just made more.

"Don't ya get so overconfident," Skippy said, as he washed his hands with the hose.

Leif disregarded Skippy's warning and focused on envisioning the triumph of his victory. Skippy had hands out and shook the water off them. In the distance, a dog's barking could be heard, but the music playing from one of the neighbors' homes was too faint for Skippy to make out.

"Come on, Skip, let's practice some more," Leif called.

"Hold on a second, I want a break," Skippy said.

Leif lied down on the mud and groaned. Skippy could feel mud getting stiff on his skin, so he grabbed the hose again and started to spray his body, and then his hair. He climbed onto the deck to grab a soda from the cooler. His mom put some drinks and snacks in there because she didn't want the boys to come in tracking water or mud into the house. She was going to bring them lunch later.

Skippy sat in a chair that stung him a little because of the sun and heat. The can let out a "psst" as he popped it open and took a long drink. Leif popped his head up like a dog hearing a noise and wanting to know what it was. He got up and saw Skippy laying back with a can between his legs.

"Yo, Skip, bring me one, please," he said.

"Ah, come on, get it yourself," Skippy moaned.

"Alright, but I'll get mud all over the cooler and possibly track mud on the deck floor and…"

"Fine," Skippy moaned, "Which do you want?"

"Water bottle!" Leif yelled.

Skippy sat his can down on the floor, then went to the cooler and grabbed a bottle of water. The sound of the water and ice sloshing around as he grabbed it. He went over to leaf was sitting cross legged in the mud.

Leif suggested they work on the move after Skippy finished resting, after taking a swig of the bottle. He closed the lid, and the entire bottle was covered in mud.

Skippy wrinkled his nose and stared to rub the back of his neck, "Are you sure?" he asked.

"What's wrong?" Leif asked.

"It's just," Skippy looked down and moved his right foot back and forth, "It's just, I'm not sure we should do it."

There was a quiet pause between the two boys, only the sounds of nature and a slight breeze through the trees' leaves. Leif set the bottle in the mud and remained sitting, rubbing his chin before speaking.

"I think it will be a great move, it would impress the crowd!"

Skippy picked up some mud in his right hand and started squeezing it, "We don't need to do it."

"Couldn't we give it a try, and if you don't like it, we don't use it?" Leif pleaded; his hands folded together in a pleading gesture.

Skippy crossed his arms over his chest, skeptical.

"Please, I promise," Leif added, giving Skippy a determined look.

"No, I think we have great moves already, I don't want to do this one," Skippy said, shaking his head.

"I've never broken a promise, have I?" Leif asked, trying to appeal to Skippy's trust in him.

Skippy hesitates, looking at Leif's eyes, a mixture of puppy eyes and determination. He knew Leif probably wouldn't let up on this. There was also the risk that if they didn't try it in practice, and they didn't win, Leif would say they could have if they tried it.

"Fine," Skippy said, letting his crossed arms fall, "But! If I don't like it, we ain't doing it anymore, and you can't say anything about it."

"Deal!" Leif said, pleased to have won Skippy over.

"You're going to let me take a break for 20 minutes too." Skippy added.

"Deal, Deal." Leif agreed.

The two boys high fived and Skippy went to take his break on the porch as Leif played in the mud some more.

The new move was one where a person vaults over the other's back and lands on the other side. Skippy got into position Leif was going to be the one who would be jumping over his back. He was on his hands and knees hoping to stay steady in the mud. He wanted to stop from trembling. Maybe Leif was right, and this would be great. The idea of this move was performance it would be a good way to wow the crowd and distract an opponent.

"I'm ready," Skippy said in a shaky voice.

"This is gonna be great," Leif said.

Skippy's heart was beating faster and he felt his body was stiff, and he felt hot, but not from the day's heat. He gulped. Leif, on the other hand, had a look of determination in his face. He was looking at how Skippy was positioned then thinking about where he would land. He walked up to Skippy to get a feel of the mud texture, then he placed his palms on Skippy's back to get a measure on skin texture to see if Skippy was slippery or not.

Skippy turned his head to look at him, "If you're gonna do it, please hurry up, I'm getting tired, here," he said.

Leif walked back and started to run and everything was going well, but as Leif was leaping over Skippy, his foot slipped on the muddy ground and he landed awkwardly on his ankle.