Summer Secrets (part 3 Of 7) free porn video

Summer Secrets By Varian Milagro http://varianm.blogspot.com/ Chapter 13 I woke up excited on Sunday. I not only had my guitar again, but I'd be playing with Jill, Brenda and Cindy in just a few hours. I jumped in the shower and shaved my legs. I didn't have a lot of hair on them, but I really liked how they felt when all the hair was gone. I skipped washing my hair since I didn't want to wash the highlights out. I figured that I would wash my hair at the salon on Monday so that Heidi could help me make it look nice again. After my shower I headed to my room to decide on what to wear. I decided to go with a skirt. I wanted to wear jeans, but I hated tucking. I opted for a tan skirt and a pair of tights. I wore one of the new bras that I had bought with Jill and once I filled them with the inserts I added a white blouse. On my feet I wore a pair of sandals with a tiny heel. A few minutes later I was in the bathroom applying eyeliner when my mom walked by and stopped in her tracks. She had not seen me putting on makeup before and it seemed to have taken her by surprise. Once I finished with my makeup I added a little perfume and then walked into the living room to wait for Jill. At first neither of us said anything and I got more uncomfortable by the second. "You look very nice," my mom said eventually. "Thanks," I replied. "I'm a little nervous." She excused herself and came back a few moments later with a necklace in her hands. "This will look nice on you," she said as she placed a necklace made of amber stones around my neck. It hung to the top of my fake breasts. Your grandma gave that to me when I was a little older then you." "Thank you, Mom," I said, looking down at the necklace. "It looks really nice." There was a knock at the door and I jumped up to answer it; it was Jill. I grabbed my guitar, stand and amp and shouted goodbye to my mom as Jill and I left the apartment. It was nearly an hour drive to Cindy's. She lived on a couple acres out in the boonies. She lived in a rambler with an unattached garage and there was a hundred yards between her house and her neighbors. Besides a little bit of lawn in front and behind the house, the property was covered with giant pine trees. As we pulled into the driveway we could see that we were the last to arrive and we were ten minutes early. I pulled my guitar, stand and amp from the back seat of Jill's car. She grabbed her bass and stand and followed me. Cindy's garage door was already open and Brenda and Cindy were talking and smoking while a tall, lanky guy with shaggy, shoulder length, dark blonde hair was adjusting a microphone in front a medium sized drum kit. There were three other microphones on stands in front of the drum kit. The one on the far left had a Fender guitar resting in a guitar stand next to it. The next two microphone stands looked unclaimed. On the right was a large electronic keyboard. Jill moved toward the microphone next to the keyboard. The guy stopped messing with the drums once he saw me and hurried over and took the amp from me. "Hi, I'm Scott." He stuck out his free hand. "I'm Stacy." I shook his hand gently. "Better known as Princess," Brenda said and then chuckled. "Would you give it rest?" Jill snapped. "Royalty, I can dig it." Scott bowed. "Princess Stacy it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance," Brenda, Cindy and Scott laughed while I tried to resist my urge to go back to Jill's car and hide. "Where do you want me to setup?" I asked. "Right here." Scott pointed to the free microphone. "But you can take this thing back to the car." He looked down at my amp. "This is a decent practice amp, but we'll drown this thing out in a hurry. Don't worry; I've got one in my van you can borrow until you get a better one." I opened my guitar case and pulled out my Les Paul. I set it on the guitar stand and then pulled my footswitch and audio cable from the hollow in the back of my amp and then set the amp by the garage wall. Scott reappeared a few moments later carrying a medium sized Marshall amp. Jill followed a moment later carrying her own. I hooked up to the amp and then started tuning my guitar. Cindy picked up her guitar and began tuning it. Once I was satisfied my guitar was perfectly tuned I turned to Jill. "I don't really sing." I pointed at the microphone. "Everyone sings backup," Brenda said. "You don't have to sing if you don't want to," Cindy said to me. "She should sing," Brenda said. "She's got a good voice." "You don't have to sing," Cindy whispered. Scott had us do some sound checks and had us make some adjustments. Once he was satisfied he turned to me. "Okay, Your Highness, it's your show what do you want to start with?" He held his drum sticks in one hand. "Umm...does everyone know 'Fruit and Icebergs' by Blue Cheer?" "I've never even heard that song," Brenda said. "'Frankenstein'?" I asked quietly, feeling really embarrassed. "How about 'Sunshine of Your Love'?" Scott said. "I love that song," I replied, gaining a bit of confidence. We all made some adjustments to our amps and then let Scott know when we were ready. "Okay, let's see what you've got." Scott started clapping his drum sticks together. "One, two, three, four," he shouted and then started pounding on the drum kit. I bent my head forward, my hair shielding me from the rest of the world and started playing. We stopped abruptly when I came in late. The next attempt Cindy and I weren't in sync, so Scott stopped playing after a minute and called for us to stop. It was the fourth attempt that we got together and it was sounding really good. Jill's voice was a couple octaves higher than Eric Clapton's, but it still sounded cool. Playing with Jill's band was so much better than playing with Nick. It was better than singing 'Satisfaction' with the girls on Friday night. We were making real music. We were a unit, working together to make one sound; it felt great to be part of something more than just myself. When it came to the solo I concentrated on playing it just like Clapton did on one of his live concerts. I'd played the song many times with Nick and Barry. Nick had a huge collection of bootlegs and had the guitar parts from most of them memorized. I made one mistake during the solo, which for me was one too many. I was just about finished when I noticed that I was the only one still playing. I stopped, pulled my hair away from my face and turned to look at my band mates who were all staring at me. "Sorry, I messed that one part up," I said sheepishly. They continued to stare and my embarrassment continued to grow. "That was far out!" Scott said finally. "Wow, Stacy! I'd heard that you were good at the guitar, but I didn't know you were that amazing." Jill said. "That was cool as shit, Princess," Brenda said with a smile. "With Scott on drums and Stacy playing guitar like that we could get a gig for sure," Cindy said. "Gig?" I hadn't considered the possibility of playing before an actual audience. "Slow your horses, Cindy." Scott stood. "That song went well, but it is way too early to be thinking about a gig. We need to concentrate on getting our sound down first." He sat back down. "Let's take it from the top." He started banging on the sticks again. "One, two, three, four." We played "Sunshine of Your Love" again. Whenever I played with Nick and Barry they refused to play a song more than twice the same day. The second time through I still wasn't error free on the solo. There was one part particular part that I had a hard time duplicating. It required alternating between three different notes in rapid succession and my success rate depended on my current anxiety level. Once we finished playing the second time I noticed another difference between my old band and new. Whenever I messed up even slightly, Barry and Nick would laugh and give me crap. Cindy, Scott and the others kept telling me how great I was doing. The third time through the song I played error free, but we still weren't playing as tight as Scott wanted though. He said that individually we were playing great, but that we needed to play as band. It was clear that the rest of the band had played the song many times before, but was a little rusty. They were also getting used to playing with a new person. After hour we switched over to "Reign O'er Me" by The Who. Scott still thought that we had room for improvement on "Sunshine of Your Love", but said that we were getting there. I almost stopped playing halfway through the song so I could just listen to Jill. I knew that she had an awesome voice after hearing her sing earlier, but she sang with so much emotion. It moved me every time she sang it. After playing for a couple hours we took a lunch break. After we ate Jill had us pose for a couple band photos and then we got right back to it. We worked on two more songs during the second half of practice, "Somebody to Love" by Jefferson Airplane and Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild". Once we were adequate according to Scott we started over with "Sunshine of Your Love" and worked our way through all four. If Nick and Barry had been there they would have been throwing a fit, having to play the same songs over and over would have been torture for them. I was in heaven. I loved playing my guitar and I loved playing with others who clearly cared about the music as much as me. Plus, every time we played a song we played it a just little better. At the end of practice Cindy let us know that her parents and neighbors were okay with us practicing on Wednesday night from six to nine and during the afternoons on Saturday and Sunday. She also said we could leave a lot of our stuff in the garage if we wanted. Jill and I took our guitars, but Scott and Brenda left their keyboard and drums behind. As I was packing up my stuff, Scott came over and helped me. He insisted on carrying most of it to Jill's car. "So, how many songs do you know?" Scott asked. "I don't know, a bunch I guess," I replied. "Why don't you bring a list of songs you know how to the next practice?" "Okay," I replied. He leaned up against Jill's car and crossed his arms. "Where did you learn to play a guitar like that?" "My dad taught me, he played professionally for awhile." "Oh yeah? What band did play in?" Scott flexed his biceps. "He said that he was a studio musician." "Cool." He paused for a moment. "So, you go to the same school as Jill?" "No, I live in a different school district," I replied. Scott was giving me a weird look. He was staring at me intently and it was making me pretty nervous. "What do you like to do when you're not playing guitar?" "Umm...," I began. "Oh, there you are," Brenda said to Scott as she joined us. "Can you help Cindy with her amp?" "Sure thing," Scott replied. Brenda watched him walk to the garage and then she whipped around and glared at me. "Stay away from Scott or I'll rip your tits off," Brenda snarled. "Got it, Princess?" "No sweat." I shrank away from her. Brenda stormed back to the garage and I climbed in the car and waited for Jill. My head swirled as the implications of my conversation with Scott hit me. I'd gotten kind of used to Brenda being annoyed with me. She was particularly annoyed now, and I believed her threat, but since I routinely removed my tits, it didn't worry me as much as Scott's intentions. He'd been showing an interest in me. I thought he was just being nice to the new person, but based on Brenda's reaction I realized that he was attracted to me. I didn't know how to handle it. I guess I could take it as a compliment, but it still freaked me out. I wanted to hide. I wanted to take a shower. I'd finished practice on such a high and then ten minutes later I wanted to go home, crawl under my bed and not come out for a week. Once Jill dropped me off at home I washed my makeup off my face and changed into Gary clothes. I joined my mom in the living room and we watched television together and then I helped her make dinner. Chapter 14 The next day I was back in the pink uniform dress and washing client's hair. I was very excited to share my weekend with Heidi. Luckily it wasn't very busy so I had lots of opportunities to share. While she washed my hair and put the temporary highlights back in I told her all about the sleep over, even the parts I skipped over with my mom. I didn't tell her about Jill smoking though. She was delighted when I told her about joining the band. When Heidi was at lunch Patricia had me follow her to the back and then she gave me a new article of clothing. She called it a gaff and said it would help me when it came to tucking. I was thankful and a bit embarrassed at the same time. I stuffed it into my purse. When Luanne found out that I'd been dressed as Stacy in public she used it as an argument to add gopher to my list of duties. Typically when something was needed from one of the neighboring stores they always sent Luanne since she was the newbie. Now it fell to me. I was fine with it. I was pretty used to others seeing me as Stacy plus it meant that I could get outside for a little bit. On Tuesday I started dressing as Stacy at home before my mom and I left for the salon. Now that I was running errands in the strip mall it seemed silly to get dressed up as Gary only to change into Stacy's clothes an hour later. It meant getting up a little earlier to do my hair and makeup, but it was easier doing it in my own bathroom than in the salon's communal bathroom. Wednesday I brought my guitar to the salon since Jill would be picking me up right after work. Heidi had me pull it out of its case and show it to her. She tried to talk me into playing it, but I refused. Playing with the band was one thing, but playing in front of an audience of four was too freaky. There was a new person at Cindy's when Jill and I arrived at practice that night. It turned out to be Cindy's boyfriend Tony. He was a fairly large, dark-haired guy who didn't talk very much. "Is he going to watch us play?" I asked Jill as we pulled our guitars from their cases. "Yeah. Is that a problem?" "No, I guess not," I replied. I tried not to think about a potential audience member as I tuned my guitar. This freaked me out even more than the idea of playing for the ladies at the salon, at least I knew them. Once I finished tuning my guitar I set it on the stand and plugged into the amp. "Here's the list of songs I know." I handed Scott a sheet of paper covered with song titles. "Jesus, you've got almost a hundred songs listed here." "There's more on the back." "So there is," he said as he turned the paper over. "This is great, you already know a lot of the songs we have down. We'll be able to get up to speed in no time." Scott paused for a moment. "So, you're really only fourteen?" "Yeah." I looked over to Brenda to see if she was going to become unglued again, but her back was to us. "That's cool." He didn't say anything for a couple moments. "Well, you play pretty righteous for a fourteen year old; you're going to be out of sight by time you're twenty." As we got into place to work on the first song Troy sat down on a folding chair ten feet in front of us and my anxiety skyrocketed. I breathed deep a couple times, but it didn't help. When Scott started counting out the beat I flipped my hair into my face and that helped a little. We ran through the four songs we'd practiced on Sunday and then we moved on to The Doors' "Light My Fire", which Jill sang, followed by Blue Cheer's "Summertime Blues", which Scott sang. Tony cheered enthusiastically after every song. I'm not sure if he actually liked the music or he was just trying to butter up Cindy. I didn't really care which; I really liked the sound. I still kept my face hidden while I played, but I found the idea of a spectator who applauded rather appealing. I was still pretty happy that it was only one person. After practice I carried my guitar and stand to Jill's car; Scott didn't offer to carry anything for me this time which was just fine by me. I wondered if Brenda had gotten on Scott's case too. When I got home my mom asked to talk to me. "Gary, I've been thinking that you might not need to stay at the salon anymore." "What do you mean?" I asked. "If we talk to the judge and tell him how good you've been he might dismiss the case early then you'd be able stay at home by yourself," she said with a big smile. I frowned. "You mean not work at the salon anymore?" "Exactly, you could play your guitar or watch television and then you wouldn't be bored." "But I like helping at the salon," I said. "Plus Scott says I need a new amp and if Gloria keeps paying me a hundred bucks to wash hair I could probably buy it after another month." "But if you stay at home you won't have to dress up as a girl." She looked at me I wasn't getting something obvious. "I'd still have to be Stacy to play in the band," I said with a snotty voice. "You could join a different band," she retorted. "I'll talk to the judge and then you won't have to wear a dress anymore." "You don't get it, Mom," I snapped. "I kind of like it." I felt my face grow hot in frustration and a bit of embarrassment. "What?" A look of fear spread across her face. "I like it when I'm Stacy. People treat me different. All the guys ever did was tease me because I was small and not very strong. They don't do that now. Girl's never talked to me and now they include me in their conversations, they want to know what I have to say. As a guy it was no big deal that I could play the guitar really well, but now everyone thinks it's amazing that Stacy can play so well. I like the attention. I used to hate it, but as Stacy I like it." My mom looked like she was going to cry. "I'm sorry Mom." I felt like I was going to cry too. "We can still talk to the judge if you want to." My mom pulled me into a hug. "No, sweetie it's okay. You can still work at the salon. I'm proud that you want to save your money, it is very responsible of you." We went into the living room and turned on the television. My mom normally sits on the couch and I sit in a reclining chair when we watch television together, but tonight I sat by mom on the couch. After about ten minutes I rested my head on her shoulder; she put her arm around me and held me tightly. We watched the "The Jim Stafford Show" together until it ended at eleven, even though my mom normally goes to bed by ten-thirty. On Thursday night I stayed dressed as Stacy when I got home from the salon. I was a little self conscious when my mom and I sat down for dinner, but she didn't say anything so I relaxed and enjoyed the meal. After dinner I removed all my Gary clothes from my dresser and dumped them in the back of my closet. I filled the dresser with the clothes that I'd purchased with Jill. I hung the dresses and blouses in the closet. I pulled my makeup out of the makeup bag Heidi had given me and arranged it on my dresser. I would have put it in the bathroom, but my mom's makeup already occupied most of its tiny counter. Late in the evening while I was listening to music in my room my mom knocked on my door. She was holding several t-shirts. "I want you to have these," she said. "Your father used to drag me to concerts with him and he always insisted on buying shirts for both of us. We would wear the shirts through the concerts, so these have only been worn once." She looked at the shirts in her hands. "I think you like these bands. I would have given them to you before, but they're women's t-shirts." She handed the shirts to me. I looked through the shirts. There was a Doors t-shirt from their 1970 tour, 1968 Pink Floyd world tour, Cream's 1968 tour, CCR's 1969 tour, and The Who from 1967. I was speechless. It was so amazing; it rivaled my dad giving me his Les Paul. I hugged her and thanked her. Once my mom left the room I whipped off my top and pulled the Cream t-shirt over my head and looked at my reflection in my mirror. The shirt was cut to accommodate boobs and display a woman's figure. I turned to the side, pulled back my shoulders and thrust out my chest; Eric, Ginger and Jack never looked better. I was tempted to sleep in the shirt, but I didn't want to wrinkle it. I removed it and put all five shirts in top drawer of my dresser and then got ready for bed. Chapter 15 On Friday night Jill picked me up at the salon again. Since we'd be having band practice most of Saturday and Sunday my mom had agreed that I could spend Friday and Saturday night with Jill. We weren't far from the salon when I noticed that we weren't headed toward Jill's house. "Where are we going?" I asked eventually. "We're going to sleep over at Cindy's house," she replied. "Sorry, I was going to tell you before, but I forgot." "My mom might not like it if I'm not staying at your house," I said. "I won't tell if you don't." Cindy's house didn't have a large basement like Jill's, but her bedroom was pretty large so Jill and I were able to lay sleeping bags on the floor and Brenda was going to share Cindy's queen bed. Cindy's bedroom didn't have matching furniture like Jill's. Most of it looked like it was picked up at a garage sale. The wall behind her bed was covered with photos of David Cassidy cut from magazines. We spent the first part of the evening in the kitchen making cookies and then moved to the dining room to decorate them with frosting and sprinkles. Once we had them looking really cool we took them to Cindy's bedroom and started eating them. I'd brought a couple fashion magazines from the salon with me. The girls browsed the magazines and I gave them makeovers. Cindy braided my hair while I worked on Jill's face. The room got pretty smoky with all three girls smoking. I noticed that Jill only smoked a couple times, unlike like the other two who seemed to smoke every thirty minutes or so. Brenda didn't try to talk me into smoking, although she did kind of mention it when I asked her when she was going stop calling me Princess. "If you want me to stop just streak or smoke a cigarette," she said. "Until then you are Princess." We stayed up pretty late and got up very late the next day. We didn't have a lot of time before Scott would be showing up for practice so we just had cold cereal for breakfast. Cindy mentioned that there was a carnival in a neighboring town that weekend. It sounded like a lot of fun and we decided to go to it after practice. "Do you always sleep with your makeup on?" Brenda asked me while we ate breakfast. "Sometimes." I was afraid to take it off around the girls. I was afraid they would see that I wasn't a real girl. "You probably shouldn't," Cindy said. "You're liable to break out if you do it too much." "Thanks, I'll remember that." After breakfast I escaped into the bathroom with my suitcase so that I could change in private. I decided to go with jeans today so I used one of the gaffs that Patricia had given me. It was much nicer than trying to shove everything back and then give myself a wedgie. I cleaned my face and then reapplied my makeup. I put on a clean bra and filled it with my falsies. Once I was satisfied with how my fake boobs were sitting in my bra I covered it with The Who t-shirt my mom had given me. No one was waiting outside of the bathroom this time and no one made a comment about me changing by myself. I hoped they just thought I was shy, which was true enough. In addition to Troy there was a new audience member at practice. It was Mark. He was eighteen like Scott and they were good friends apparently. He also seemed to know Troy as well. Mark looked athletic and had wavy, brunette hair that fell to the nape of his neck. He also sported a mustache that looked like a horseshoe. Seeing a new audience member scared me again, but if my hair shield worked for one person, it should work for two. Scott had us run through the six songs we'd already practiced on before working on a new one. Scott counted off and I bent my head forward and started playing the opening of "Born to be Wild". When my hair failed to create a curtain in front of my face I shook my head a couple times, but my hair stayed put. I remembered that my hair was still in a braid. I'd really liked it when Cindy had put the braid in my hair; it made me feel like one of the girls and I think it looked pretty as well, but at the moment I wasn't loving it. I wasn't used to playing my guitar and seeing people looking at me. I started getting queasy and my guitar playing deteriorated. "Stop!" Scott said. "Everything all right, Stacy?" "Sorry," I said quietly. "Let's take it from the top," Scott said with a frown. Scott was a pretty laid back guy and was really mellow before and after practice, but while we were practicing he was very serious about our sound and did not have a lot of patience for screw ups. I continued screwing up. Even if I didn't look directly at Troy and Mark I could feel them looking at me. "I know you can play better than that, Stacy," Scott said once he'd stopped us again. "Get it together." I took a step towards Jill and whispered into her ear. "Can I talk to for a moment?" Jill set her guitar in its stand without saying a word. I did the same with mine and then followed her into the house. "What's going on, Stacy?" she asked with concern. "Mark and Troy are making me nervous," I replied. "They're cool; they know that it's just practice." "Seeing them watching me makes me really nervous. Can you help me pull the braid out of my hair?" "I have a better idea." She headed back into the garage. Jill walked up to Cindy and whispered into her ear. Cindy looked at me for a moment and then turned back to Jill and shrugged. She unplugged her guitar and walked over to Troy and whispered into his ear. He motioned to Mark and then they both walked out of the garage and around the corner of the house. I could see the smoke from their cigarettes so I knew that they were still close, but they were out of my line of site and I felt myself relax a little. Brenda shook her head. "You're too much, Princess." "Can we get back to practice now?" Scott asked, clearly annoyed. His annoyance diminished when I played the song flawlessly on the next run through. Once we finished Mark and Troy came around the corner and cheered. Before we started the second song they ducked out of site again only to reappear after the song, cheering once again. They even cheered when we stopped because someone made a mistake. Scott looked like he was annoyed. He would have to wait for them to stop clapping and hooting before he could tell us what we needed to do. I liked it though. It sent a little thrill through me every time they cheered. As much as their presence stressed me, I found that I liked their enthusiastic appreciation even more. After about the forth song I noticed them peeking their heads around the corner halfway through the song. Their presence still bothered me, but not as much as before so it did not affect my performance this time. After lunch I told Jill that I could probably handle it if Mark and Troy sat in the garage once again. Brenda gave me crap, of course. "Are you sure that it's okay that they look upon your person?" Brenda said. "You sure you don't want them to wear blindfolds." Chapter 16 After practice the girls started changing again. It became clear to me that, to them, this was more than just hanging out at a carnival. Jill and Cindy kept their jeans, but changed into halter tops that showed off their waists. Brenda kept her fringe vest, but changed her shirt to one that had a v-neck and showed off the tops of her boobs. All three went a lot heavier with the makeup and jewelry. I thought about changing my clothes too, but then it occurred to me that they were dressing up to impress guys. I thought back my trip to McDonalds with Jill. I didn't want to impress any guys. I decided to stick to my The Who t-shirt and jeans. Once the girls were ready we all piled into Jill's Gremlin to make the trip to the carnival. I was pretty excited. I loved carnival rides. When we arrived I found out that they had failed to mention to me that in addition to inviting Mark, Scott and Troy, that they had invited Mark's younger brother, Daniel. I was aghast. They were trying to set me up with a guy. I pulled Jill away and led her back to the car. "What is going on?" I asked, partly terrified, partly disgusted. "Why are there four guys here? Are you trying to set me up?" "Chill, Stacy," Jill said. "No one is trying to set you up. Mark just thought that you'd like some company, you know, so you wouldn't feel like a third wheel." "I'm not comfortable with this." "You don't have to even talk to him if you don't want to, but Mark says he's a nice guy." We walked back to the group and Mark introduced Daniel to everyone. Daniel was about four inches taller than me and looked a lot like his brother, but he was clean shaven. As we walked down the main concourse of the carnival everyone quickly paired up. Scott walked next to Brenda, Cindy next to Troy and Mark next to Jill. I walked on the other side of Jill and Daniel walked next to his brother. I forgot about Daniel as we neared the main entrance and I heard the distinctive carnival sounds, carnival barkers yelling, girls squealing, bells ringing, fake screams from the haunted house. The place was packed with people and we had a hard time staying together as we walked past the carnival games to the rides. The mixed up smell of hot dogs, caramel corn, diesel exhaust, cigarette smoke and body odor reminded me of carnivals past. I held onto Jill's arm and tried to resist skipping. My mood crashed on our first ride. It was the Octopus and the cars only held two people. Daniel and I were stuck in a car with each other and we didn't say anything to each other the entire ride. I was so uncomfortable. After the longest carnival ride of my life we all got in line for the Music Express. "So, I hear you're in a band," Daniel said. "Yeah," I said. "You play guitar?" "Yeah." We didn't talk for the remaining fifteen minute wait for the ride. We were once again seated next to each other, at least on this ride there would be loud music so our lack of conversation would be normal. "You like The Who?" He pointed at my t-shirt. "Yeah." I wanted to add "who doesn't", but I didn't want to be mean. "I saw them in concert in March." "Really?" I sat up. "What what were they like?" I'd wanted to see The Who perform live for years. He started to reply with mutual excitement, but his words were drowned out by the ride's blaring music. Like the last ride this one lasted way too long, but for the opposite reason. I wanted to hear about the concert and now I had to wait for the ride to finish before we could talk. Once it finished we followed the others to the Tilt-a-Whirl while I quizzed him on his experience. 'What was it like?" I asked. "I haven't been to a rock concert yet. My mom hates them and thinks they're too loud and too many people smoking pot so she won't let me go. She says I have to be fifteen at least, but I'll be fifteen at the end of August. Aerosmith is playing a few days after my birthday, but they sold out months ago." "The Who was amazing!" he said once I let him talk. "Your mom is right concerts are really loud, but that's a good thing." "That's so cool," I replied, trying to imagine what it must have been like. "What were Roger and Peter like? Did Peter do the windmill thing when playing his guitar? I heard that is so cool." "I had lame seats so I couldn't see them too well, but they sounded great. "They are so much better live than they are on their album." "I wish I could have been there. Have you been to any other concerts?" "I saw Led Zeppelin last year." "You're so lucky," I said. "Mark actually has a couple tickets to the Aerosmith concert, but he's not going to take me." "What a drag." We continued to talk music while waiting in line for the next several rides. It turned out that not only did we like a lot of the same music, but we were both starting high school in the fall. He'd be attending Westmore, the same school that Jill attended. He was into cars and was building his own muscle car, which he planned on having finished by time he turned sixteen in six months. He had a paper route and also mowed his neighbor's lawns to buy all the parts for his car. The job at the salon was my first job; Daniel had been doing odd jobs to make money for a couple years now. I was really impressed. Eventually the others decided they wanted to ride the Ferris wheel; I thought the Ferris wheel was barley one step up from the kiddy rides, but it was better than standing around waiting while everyone else rode the ride. "Do you like the Ferris wheel?" Daniel asked me after we'd been in line for a few minutes. I shrugged. "It's okay, I guess." "Oh, okay." "Why?" I asked after a couple moments. "I think it kind of sucks. It's barely better than those rides." He pointed to the kiddy rides. I laughed. "Yeah, you're right it does suck. I think the others want to ride it so they can make out." "Want to ride the Zipper again?" "Yeah." We let the others know where we were going and then got into the Zipper line. I loved the Zipper even though I got whipped by my braid when I rode it. We rode it three times straight before the others found us. They were going to try the Pepsi challenge. Daniel and I decided that a thirty minute line wasn't worth a couple sips of pop and a stupid button so we left them and went on some more rides. I started getting hungry after another round of rides so we found a food booth. We both ordered a corndog and a Coke. I was still digging in my purse for my money when Daniel paid for both. We sat on a bench and talked while we ate. I found that I liked hanging out with Daniel. It was nice being around someone that was not only my age, but also a non- smoker. After we finished eating Daniel talked me into playing some of the carnival games. I normally avoided carnival games since I almost always embarrassed myself. We started off by playing the clown balloon game, the one where you have to squirt water into a clown's mouth in order to pop a balloon. A bunch of other people joined us, which is both good and bad. It's good if you win since you get a better prize. It's bad since it means it's also harder to win. We both lost the first game, but we stayed for a second game. While waiting for the second game Daniel noticed that his gun leaked water. He let it pool in his hand and then splashed some of the water in my face. I shrieked and he laughed. Once the game started we both got serious about winning, but as the game ended and a weak stream of water flowed from my gun I turned it shot the water right in his face. The game operator, a burly guy with long sideburns, yelled at me to cut it out. Daniel and I started laughing again. About halfway through the third game Daniel turned his gun toward my clown and started shooting water into my clown's mouth. "You're going to get us in trouble," I said. "I want you to win," he replied. I turned my gun toward his clown and we finished the game squirting water into each other's clown's mouths. The game operator walked over to us. The name "Gus" was stitched into his leather vest. "I warned you, now you're banned from this game for the rest of the night," Gus said gruffly. "You dope, you got us in trouble," I said, embarrassed. "Me?" he said with mock indignation. "We were getting away with it until you started squirting my clown." "It's my fault?" I asked incredulously. "Absolutely," he said with a big smile. "You would have won too, but you blew it." He laughed. I pushed him and he just laughed even harder. I quickly joined him and we laughed our way to the next game. We headed to the shooting gallery next. You couldn't win anything on this one, but you could shoot different moving targets with a BB gun. We were calling out our points to each other as we hit various targets. Daniel was calling them out much faster than I was, so I started bumping him with my hip to spoil his aim. He kept telling me to knock it off, but he was laughing the whole time. On our way to our next game he decided to get me back by bumping my hip. I wasn't prepared for it and I lost my balance and crashed into a large man eating a hot dog. He got pissed told me to watch where I was walking. Daniel and I ran away laughing. We played several other games and it was going really well and I was having a lot of fun with Daniel. He was easy to talk to and we shared a love of music. Unfortunately it ended abruptly on the ring toss game. I missed all the rings, but Daniel landed his. He won a decent sized teddy bear, one that was about two feet tall and he gave it to me. He looked so happy and I knew why. What guy doesn't want to win a stuffed animal at a carnival for a girl? Unfortunately for me it brought home the fact that I was the girl and Daniel was making like he was my guy. "Thanks," I said weakly as I took the bear. He looked confused. I guessed it was because he could see that I was upset and he didn't know why. I wanted to ease his mind, but I was too confused to talk. We made our way back to the rides in silence. I thought about my time at the carnival thus far. I'd really been enjoying hanging out with Daniel. When I'd first arrived and saw four guys I thought that Jill and Mark were trying to play match maker. Perhaps they were, but after Daniel and I had started talking I forgot all about that. I'd even forgotten that I was Stacy. I was just me and I was having a lot of fun at the carnival with Daniel. I'd been to the carnival before, mostly with either my parents or Nick. Going to the carnival with my parents was okay, but it lost a lot of the fun by my tenth birthday. When I'd gone with Nick we always had to do what Nick wanted to do. He only did things I wanted to do if he already wanted to do them. Daniel had been interested in doing things that I wanted to do. He listened to me and he made me laugh. I could make him laugh too. I looked at the teddy bear he'd given me. Daniel was a lot of fun to be around, but I wasn't sure I could be around him if he liked me in "that" way. "Is anything wrong? Daniel finally asked. "No. I'm just tired." "Was it stupid that I gave you the bear?" he asked with uncertainly in his voice. "No, it's not you, really," I said. "Look I need to be alone for a little while. I'm going to head to the car. I'll find you later." "I'll walk you to the car," he said. "No." I stopped and turned toward him. "I really need to be by myself for a little bit, okay?" "All right. I'll be by the Tilt-a-Whirl." I turned around and started walking the other way, only to find a sea of people between me and the parking lot. The car was actually fairly close, but a wall of tents and a chain-link fence were between me and Jill's car. If I walked to the carnival entrance I would have to walk a couple blocks through the wall of people, only to have to backtrack to the car once I reached the end of the fence. I then noticed that there was a gap between a couple of the tents so I decided to try to sneak through them and then hop the fence. As I made my way through the tents I realized that the sun had set. The main area of the carnival was so well lit I hadn't realized that it had gotten dark. It was twilight so I could still see or I probably would have turned around. When I reached the fence it was taller than I'd realized and I didn't feel like trying to scale it. There was a decent gap between the back of the tents and the fence and no crowds so I started walking along the fence line to the carnival's entrance. Besides the having to dodge tent ropes and try not to gag on the over powering smell of urine, it was better than having to fight my way through the crowd. It worked pretty well until I came across a couple of carnival workers on their smoke break. One of them was Gus, the guy who ran the clown game. The other guy looked like he'd just been released from prison. "You're not supposed to be back here," Gus said. "Sorry, I'm just trying to find my way out." "Well, it's not this way." The ex-con blocked my forward progress. "Not this way either." Gus blocked my retreat. "Please let me by," I said, suddenly afraid. "Where did you get this?" Gus yanked the stuffed bear from my hands. "Get this cheating at other carnival games?" "No." "Did your boyfriend win this for you?" He tossed the bear to his coworker "He's not my boyfriend." "No? What's the matter doesn't he like cheaters," the second guy said as he tossed the bear over my head. "I'm sorry about the game; I didn't mean anything by it. Can I have my bear back now?" "You know, I can lose my job if people cheat at my game." Gus stepped toward me. "You trying to get me fired?" "No." I took a step back and bumped into his buddy who glared down at me. "You should make it up to him, sweet thing." He pushed me into the Gus. "I know just how you can make it all better, too." Gus put a hand on my shoulder and pushed down. I started crying. "What the fuck are you two assholes doing?" a deep voice yelled. "We were just helping this girl find her way back to the main area. She got lost and was scared." "Sure," the big guy said. "Picking on teen girls and making them cry, is that how you sickos get your kicks?" "We were just playing." "Give me that." He snatched the bear out of Gus's hand and then pushed him against the fence. He looked at me and said, "Come on let's get you out of here." By the time we made it to the main area I had stopped crying. He walked with me to the Tilt-a-Whirl and we found Daniel sitting on a bench near the ride's exit. Daniel's face lit up when he first saw me, but it quickly turned to worry when he saw that I had been crying. He raced over to me. "Are you all right, Stacy?" he asked, concern written on his face. "Keep a better eye on your date, pal," the carnie guy said. "There are some real unsavory characters around here and a girl her age shouldn't be wandering around by herself." He turned and headed back to the games. "What happened?" Daniel asked as we sat on the bench. I was about to tell Daniel about my run in with the jerks when Jill spotted us. The rest of the group was with her and soon I was surrounded by seven people who really wanted to hear why I'd been crying. I told them exactly what happened, but not why I had felt the need to get to the car. When I finished Brenda turned to Scott. "Are you going to do something about this?" "What do you want me to do?" "Buy them a Coke," she snapped. "What the fuck do you think I want you to do? They just harassed Stacy and made her cry; go kick their asses." "Come on," Scott said to Mark. He started walking toward the gap in the tents with Mark and Troy in tow. After about ten steps Mark turned around. "What are you waiting for, Doofus?" he yelled at Daniel. "You're the one who knows what the guy looks like." Daniel jumped up and ran to join his brother. I bristled at Mark's treatment of Daniel as I watched them disappear behind the tents. They reappeared several minutes later. Scott shrugged and shook his head. "There was no one back there," Scott said once they rejoined us. "Daniel knows what the one guy looks like so we're going to walk around to see if we can find him." "Please don't. I don't want anyone to get hurt." I turned to Jill. "I'll just wait in the car until you guys are ready to go." "I think it's time we call it a night," Jill said. The other girls agreed and the guys walked us to Jill's car. Once we arrived at the car Troy and Cindy started kissing passionately. Scott and Brenda kissed a little more casually while Mark and Jill talked. "I'm sorry things ended so crappy," Daniel said to me. "I had a lot of fun tonight before that happened." "I did too," I said. I gave him a weak smile and held up the bear. "Thanks for this." He smiled. "You're welcome. I'll see you around." Jill, Brenda, Cindy and I climbed into the car and drove back to Cindy's house. The girls consoled me for the first few miles, but once I assured them that I was fine they started talking about their night with the guys. I stayed silent and tried not to think about the two carnies or how the bear had made me feel. Once we got to Cindy's I headed to the bathroom and changed into my nightgown and crawled into my sleeping bag. Jill was really concerned and wanted me to talk to her. I told her the truth, I was freaked out, but I'd probably feel better after a good night's sleep. The girls left me alone and went into another room to talk. I was still awake when they finally came back to go to bed. I couldn't get the unvoiced threat the two guys had posed out of my mind. I don't know what they would have done if that guy hadn't come along. When I wasn't reliving that incident I was brooding about my new teddy bear. For all intents and purposes I had just had a date with a guy and until I realized that was what was going on I'd had a really good time with him. It was so clear now that Daniel had been flirting with me at the carnival. I wondered if he'd thought that I'd been flirting back. --Continued in part 4--