A Pal Too Pretty

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Sitting cross-legged on the park's soft grass, I pretended to be reading my eighth-grade bio book on my lap across from the honey blonde looker reading a book resting atop a red tartan jumper's hem which was stretched taut between nicely rounded caramel knees above sleek folded lemon-yellow knee-highs that guarded like gates the yawning shadowy cave below her full pleated skirt.

I knew there were lots of reasons far beyond standard politeness why I shouldn't be peeking up Julie-Ann Foster's skirt so, but being captivated dismissed such annoying things. Besides, I was pretty sure she knew my transgressions by the slight tug at the corner of her full pearly lips whenever I had the feeling of my sneaky glances getting caught. Indeed, I was certain that she even basked in it with the same smug thrill I felt when other junior jocks spotted me with my coy beige bunny. I felt like a white knight with his damsel, especially since most the chicks our junior high couldn't hold a candle to her. Though mixed Julie-Ann was technically Negro, her caramel-hued features were more Nordic than most white girls at school, kind of like a pretty preteen Sydney "O.J" Simpson. I loved the delicate contrast of her yellow socks and canary blouse against her creamy beige skin even more than were she white, and what was just as cool was that she behaved and acted exactly like a prissy well-mannered white girl, but I didn't let mention that because I didn't know how she'd take it though I doubted she'd be offended. Julie-Ann simply wasn't hung-up with the race game pigeonhole dictating her demeanor and tastes, even if her femininity was a little quaint though sincere.

I heard the chimes of the ice cream cart. With a cute motion brushing back several stray honey tendrils of her 'Alice In Wonderland' hairdo from a rosy cheek, Julie-Ann looked up with an innocent face of shy suggestions.

"Like a cone?" I promptly asked like a poodle jumping a hoop.

She tittered like her big sparkling hazel eyes. "Oh Peter, would you?? You're so kind!" she chimed with that soft, cute, breathy Southern belle voice.

I liked how her nice sleek legginess cranked erect on her brown penny loafers which skipped alongside me over to the ice cream vendor.

"A strawberry waffle cone with all the sprinkles - and a gumdrop cherry on top!" I ordered the man with a wink at Julie-Ann's coy smile and as her pink tongue tortured her cone I felt a swell of pride. We sat on a park bench and my eyes once so often slyly raided her exposed taut lower thighs and knees and the cute little-girl way her lemon-clad ankles crossed under her bench.

"This is so neat, being out here!" Julie-Ann declared with giddy gratitude. "Way way better than sneaking my backyard!"

"Told you you'd nothing to worry about!" I said, clucking at my prize and victory. "We can go all kinds of places, like down the river or the movies or the mall or just hang out."

"Oh, but I'm scared too! Being around so many people!"

"So what? I'll be there too," I stated, feeling like a knight escort to a princess damsel who looked at me with sparkling gratitude then shied around if unsure how to express her appreciation, but instead the cheerful princess drained from her face as she caught sight of a boy obviously being picked on by junior high bullies. The expression not just of appall but meek horror in her face tweaked some kind of outrage in me that her happiness was being so violated, so I jumped up and sauntered down the grass to the trio.

"Hey, leave him alone!" I scolded the bigger jerks who snickered.

"Says who?"

"Says a guy who whipped the shit outta half my karate class and got a karate tournament to go to this Saturday!" I barked and the two bullies exchanged suddenly reconsidering looks.

"Butt out, this ain't nothing to do with you!" one snapped.

"I'm making it my business! If I hear from my cousin that you two are pestering him again I'm gonna turn you two into carpets! Now you gonna walk or they gonna carry you out??" I challenged and for a moment they did a macho bravado defiance step forward then shrugged and gave the kid a smirk and walked off.

"Thanks," the kid almost stammered, as though barely believing his luck. "You're not really my cousin, are you?"

"No, but they don't know that, so they're not gonna pick on you again," I assured and he nodded and ran off, and as I watched him I felt a funny smug swell in my chest, and it would've been totally sweet and deserving hadn't I glimpsed back at the two creeps and guiltily saw how familiar their swagger was. I turned to march back toward Julie-Ann under the tree; the wild crazy reason for my rehabilitation.

Yes, it was crazy that I could change so much for such an insanely sick reason, but I'd been on Cloud Nine ever since discovering Julie-Ann, and for once all I'd been getting since were good guiltless feelings free of derision and scorn. When I should've felt the least macho I instead felt like John Wayne and Rambo rolled into one. Maybe because, like a deer stunned in a car's headlights, it was so damn easy to forget real things.

The expression on Julie-Ann's face. You can't describe it, it looked so movie star awesome, her hazel eyes so wide and dewy sparkling looking up at me like she was gawking me all aglow in wonder and praise, almost like a princess rescued by a knight. That face made my year because I also knew I didn't just now score big in only her heart because I sensed behind her fawning gaze a glint of sated vengeance which made me feel awkwardly sorry and angry to see.

"Oh Peter! You're so - so wonderful - !!" she cried, her voice choked with near-excitement and admiration, and apparently was so caught up in it that she couldn't help it as her pearly lips suddenly dipped forward to peck my startled hot cheek.

My heart and fly thumped.

Oh wow!!

"You're the neatest kindest friend I ever had, Peter! Ever!" Julie-Ann unabashedly asserted and muting a chest thump of thunder I beamed.

"And you're the - nicest!" I avowed and she giggled, feathery eyelashes shyly fluttering aside. "I wanted to beat the snot outta those jerks, but why spoil a nice day, huh?"

"I wouldn't have minded," she answered in a soft almost wistful voice that took me aback with dismay.

"I thought you didn't like me fighting or - stuff," I clipped that off because it delved a past that wouldn't do now. Her pouf short sleeves lightly shrugged.

"I used to wish someone would come save me all the time," she voiced if aloud to herself and I felt sorry and angry that someone who dare hit on her so brutally.

"I know, Julie-Ann. But if I hadn't met you, I would've still been picking on shrimps and nerds too," I contritely admitted with equal sincerity and she kind of nodded as though ever slightly disappointed that I hadn't thrashed those guys then lifted dewy contrite eyes.

"If you were ever that bad you wouldn't be here by me," she stated like a fact or challenge.

"Well, I was, till you turned me around."

"I didn't mean to."

"Well, you did, way more than I ever dreamed of," I said and she shyly turned, mulling the park for a too long minute. "What you thinking of? Com'on, what?"

She demurely shrugged but kept looking away. "I...I was just thinking, how scared I was when you first came into my backyard while I was dancing! I thought my dad came home early or it was a burglar!" she admitted, gazing me with fond gratitude. "I thought I was safe and hidden behind our fence, that no one would ever see me slip out to play after school till my parents came home."

I chuckled. "Well, it's a good thing I heard you singing too loud that day or I never would've peeked up your driveway."

"Yes, the wrong time!" she teased like a terrible moment gone later turned sweet.

I shrugged. "So you were sneaking - er, borrowing clothes off the neighbor's clothesline. Not like you were stealing nothing."

"I meant catching me changing, silly!"

I paused, reluctant to recollect that reality reminder, even though Julie-Ann's incongruous sight was kinda magical in its own way. "Well, you were too nice to squeal on or tease or shit. Besides you were so happy, I didn't want to spoil it. I'm sorry I scared you, but I just had to come in and say how pretty you looked and how nice you sang, whatever."

She blushed and shyly looked away a moment. "I feel like a princess rescued from a dungeon," she said, facing me fondly. "I'll never forget this, Peter. Ever."

"Well, that's sure a long time being - friends, huh?" I joked, in a way wishing it was just a title more but skittish about pushing our status. Julie-Ann giggled and licked her creamy cone and my chest swelled two sizes like the new tingly sensations in my fly.

Damn! I'm so glad I didn't tell, even though that's likely why she's friends with me, like she owes me or something. But I can tell she's really happy being out with someone else knows now instead of being herself all shut in her room all alone. That would've been such a waste! And look what I would've missed! A year or two of trying to summon up the guts to ask some eighth-grade babe to be my friend - probably moments before some junior high jock steals her! But no one's going to steal Julie-Ann away from me! She's my secret alone even if they all don't even know it!

Smug, I glanced around for any drooling dudes and saw a gaggle of older junior high girls strolling along a nearby lane, their nice plump sweaters and blouses bouncing and jiggling. They caught sight of me ogling their plump upswept gifts and giggled.

"Peter!" Julie-Ann snapped as though peeved or annoyed with me before a sweet sly grin crossed her face. "Wanna see something nice?"

"Nice? Like what?"

"You'll see!" she giggled. "Take off your socks."

"My what??"

"Do it!" her giggle urged, and bemused and kicked off my sneakers and rolled off my socks.

"They're a little smelly -"

"They smell like flowers to me!" she tittered, "Now turn around!"

"Why?"

"Just do it - and don't turn back till I tell you!"

"Okay, okay!" I breathed, doing as I was told and only hearing the faint rustle of fabric rolling another for a minute or so. I spotted a guy with a dog far off who suddenly seemed to perk up and stare our way as though seeing something startling behind me.

"Don't turn!!"

"Alright, alright!" I muttered, impatiently waiting.

"Okay, turn!" Julie-Ann called and I turned then blinked aback, noticing below her shy coy smile the new modest mounds gracing her jumper's bodice.

"Oh wow!" I had to chuckle at Julie-Ann's new development. "You look - look like from ninth grade!" I sputtered to her coy titter.

"It doesn't look funny, does it?" she shyly asked with prissy vanity. "I don't have any training bra."

"Looks okay. Nancy might've left some in her bottom drawer too when she left for college, so I'll bring it tomorrow."

"Oh, you're so neat, Peter!" Julie-Ann gushed, and I beamed and clucked as I noticed some passing junior jocks giving Julie-Ann double takes.

"In fact, I got an idea. Let's cruise the mall Saturday, okay?"

"You really want to?"

"Yeah. I'll ride you there on my bike!"

"Way cool!"

"In fact, next week my Boy Scout friend Larry's having a party. Like to come?"

She perked, "A party? Sure - but, I got nothing to wear."

"Don't worry. Nancy's closet's got lots more old stuff I can give you to keep for good since she's in college now!"

"Like that lacy peach party dress?" Julie-Ann added with an envious eye. "That'll go with those suede black pumps so nice!"

"You got it! Anything you want!" I promised her beaming face.

Yeah, I was looking forward to that! Driving a beige bunny wrapped in fluffy peach pastels perched my bike's center rail between my steering arms, her sleek ivory-filmed legs dangling with nice ankles and dress pumps crossed like a coy mannered lady.

And all the guys we pass gawking like cows at a highway! Wishing they were me, so lucky with a beige babe on the sly!

Yeah!

A wild thought flinging back to the dudes in my locker room came to mind, all their wild unsubstantiated boasts of screwing cheerleaders and class bimbettes in back stairwells and shit. Just being thirteen I didn't really have all the dirty stud details, but I gathered enough from ninth-grade jocks about chicks to envisage what having sex was like and what you did, and while it was almost fanciful in concept, the curiosity was like a pounding bated breath in me. Only a couple months ago I was having wet dreams over booby blonde Joyce Shaeffer; no mechanical details, just movie-gleaned moves and ideas, and lately I was having the same about Julie-Ann. I felt kinda uneasy about that because she came across like an innocent wholesome farmer's daughter, not some junior high bimbette strutting her boobs and navel, but now Julie-Ann seemed to be flirting the same way with this chest change.

Was she trying to tell me something? I mean, I respected her and stuff, but if she was trying to entice me like other chicks...

Fuck, don't say you never dreamed it, guy! Sure, Julie-Ann's nice and sweet and all, but supposed she signaled me that it was okay to move on her, really move on her, like some of my class chicklettes at my buddies at school? Well...why not? Sure, I wasn't any James Bond expert with chicks or even sat closer to a girl than with Nancy in a car, but if Julie-Ann really wanted to mess around...

My eyes strayed at her knees. Those wonderfully becoming and enchanting knees and the modest peek of sleek adjoining thigh. All guys naturally wonder what mysteries and delights lie in anticipation far up beyond those huddled limbs, and my wet dreams of late were no exception despite her innocent image. To my senses and budding libido, there was no difference between Julie-Ann Foster and Joyce Shaeffer...

Having real sex with Julie-Ann!

Wonder what that'd be like!

Maybe some bigoted purist macho corner of my mind liked crashing parties, but a hard reminder abruptly speared my exotic whimsy; 'No, she ain't like Joyce way up them nice legs, fairy dude! What you gonna do about that, huh?'

"What are you thinking of?" a sweet voice intruded to break my daze to sheepishly shy my stare at her knees, though she was too polite to admonish me about that if she sensed my captivation and reason. I smiled at Julie-Ann's awesome face.

No. Maybe she's - different in a way I shouldn't have to know or bother with for a long time, like in high school, but for now it doesn't matter squat. Just being together and looking her and way she stirs me crazy is enough for now. How we'll mess around in the future could wait.

I was about to conjure up a lame reply when a distant school horn sounded. "Five o'clock already!" Julie-Ann ruefully sighed. "Why can't our folks work overtime all the time?"

"Don't worry. I'll be getting up real early Saturday for the whole day!" I declared and promised and bubbly over, Julie-Ann leaned to peck my cheek and quickly got up while I was still stunned.

Wow!

I followed Julie-Ann's cute leggy sashay and swaying skirt to the park's bordering hedges at its barely trafficked corner and watched her disappear behind the shrubbery and I turned my back and looked innocent in keeping lookout and after ten minutes I heard the bushes rustle and my sinking heart turned to see a scrawny eighth-grade beige-skinned guy in baggy jeans and a hip-hop sweater and sneakers and short black woolly hair emerge, hauling out a duffel bag which I jumped to grab.

"I'll get that, Julian," I said like a privileged caddy.

"Thanks," Julie-Ann's twin brother softly said, looking at me with shy fondness as though denying and amnesic of the last two hours. I sighed over a grumble.

Julian was okay for a hang-around pal, but way too mousy for sports or hanging around my other junior jock buddies. I secretly hoped that some day God would make him go away so I could have Julie-Ann all to myself forever to show off to my friends and just to spend idle time gawking at on the soft grass of a quiet park.

Yeah, that'd be so neat!

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FIN