"I read psychology too. " I told her instead, heading out the door.
I ran into Debbie at lunch. She giggled over to me and smiled. I greeted her, looking her up and down, remembering what her young body had felt like naked beneath mine.
"Word has it I'm the biggest cock-tease in the school. " She told me.
"Well what do you know about that?" I smiled. "Better than being the biggest slut, isn't it?"
She nodded, giggling again. "All the girls are asking me why I made out with you. "
"Yeah?" I grinned. "What you tell 'em?"
"That you were a totally awesome kisser. The best. "
"Thanks. " I said gratefully, wondering how long it would be until one of the other stoner girls decided to try for herself. "How are you today?"
She smiled shyly. "I could use another 'kiss' myself. " She said, blushing.
I chuckled. "I got something to do after school today, but why don't you give me your phone number? Maybe I'll give you a call on Saturday. "
She handed a piece of paper over to me. She'd already taken the time to write her number down. "Call me ANYTIME. " She said, walking away.
Period four, which I hadn't gone to yesterday, was Driver's Education. I was gratified to see that at least they took this subject very seriously. The information, though very familiar to me, was not the least bit scaled down. Period five was PE. It was spent learning the finer points of basketball. And though I enjoyed seeing all of the high school girls jumping around in their school sweats and T-shirts, I was no better at sports than I had ever been. I did enough to get by and let the rest ride.
As I dressed in the locker room some of Richie Fairview's cronies were in there. Usually they were the terror of the locker room. They eyed me nervously and came nowhere near me. When they started to approach some poor freshman slob, probably intending to make him cry just for the fun of it, I gave them a glare and they immediately found something else to do. I smiled to myself. Maybe I couldn't change the world, but I was doing a little bit at least.
Period six, the final period of the day was English. The subject was paragraph writing. I listened blandly and noted down my homework. I kept my mouth shut. When the bell rang I shouldered my backpack, found Mike, and headed for home.
Shortly after arriving home I gathered up a bottle of Windex and a roll of paper towels. Tracy had been lying on the couch flipping through a rock music magazine and had only grunted a reply to my greeting when I'd come in the house. However when she saw me heading out the door with the cleaning supplies she favored me with a pitying look.
"Going to clean Anita's windows?" She asked me.
I nodded, putting on a look of resigned disgust. "Yep. You know how it is. "
"Yeah," She nodded. "I know how it is. I gotta watch her little brats on Saturday night. " She shook her head in disgust. "Saturday fucking night! Can you believe the nerve of Mom and Dad? Volunteering me for that shit on Saturday night. And do you know why she needs a babysitter that night?"
"Why?" I asked, pausing in the doorway.
"Because she's going to a party. A party! Well what the hell do they think I was gonna do? I'm tired of them springing this crap on me at the last minute. I have a life too. "
I smiled. "Yes you do. " I told her. "Let me talk to her. I'll see what I can do. I'm not doing anything Saturday, maybe she'll let me baby-sit instead. "
"You?" Tracy asked with horror. "You can't baby-sit. "
"Why not?" I asked, already knowing what she was going to say.
"Because you're a boy!"
"So? What's that got to do with anything? Why do girls automatically make good babysitters while boys are untrustworthy?"
"Well," She tried to come up with something and failed. "Just because. Boys aren't as responsible as girls are. "
"Oh we're not, are we? Why is that?"
"Because," She said, "If a boy was left alone in a house he'd do all kinds of things. "
I started laughing.
"What?" She asked.
"When you were babysitting her kids," I asked, "Did you ever drink her booze?"
"No. " Tracy said indignantly.
"Oh come on Tracy. " I chided.
"Well maybe once or twice. " She admitted.
"And did you ever have your boyfriend over to her house?"
"Well, yes. "
"And did you ever smoke weed over there and make out on the couch? Or maybe use her bedroom for a little… "
"All right!" She yelled, laughing. "You made your point. At least to me anyway. But Mom and Dad and Anita are never going to buy it. "
"I'm just offering. " I told her. "I'll float the idea by Anita while I'm over there. And Mom and Dad will go along if Anita does. Don't worry, I'm good at talking people into things. And if it doesn't work, you're no worse off are you?"
"I guess not. " She answered, her demeanor brightening. "Well thanks Bill. I hope you can talk her into it. " She chuckled. "It's kinda hard to picture you babysitting though. "
"Kids love me. " I assured her, "And I love them. I'll be fine. " I headed for the door and then paused, "By the way, what are her kids' names anyway?"
Anita Browling's house was a single story with a small lawn and small back yard. Like all the houses in the subdivision, it had been built about 1970 or so, during a major growth spurt for the Spokane area. Like many of the other houses on the block, the paint was peeling off due to the extremes of the weather. I knew that at some point in the near future I would be volunteered to paint the house for her. Was that this coming summer? I figured it would be. I knew, looking at the paint that it hadn't been done yet and I also knew that I'd done it before Tracy's death. It had\would take me nearly two weeks in the hot sun to complete.
Anita was home when I knocked. I remembered that she worked early in the morning, Tracy often had to get up at 5:00 AM to go baby-sit on vacation days, but I couldn't for the life of me remember what it was she did. She was wearing a pair of dark slacks that hid the form of her slightly large hips and a button-up blouse that showed off her large breasts nicely. Her brown hair was tied back in a ponytail. She smiled warmly as she saw me standing there with my cleaning supplies in hand.
"Billy. " She greeted, throwing open the door and allowing me entry. "Did you come to do the windows today? You're such a sweetie. "
"No problem. " I said, smiling back. "I'll have 'em squeaky clean in no time. "
Her two children (Ryan and Jennifer, Ryan and Jennifer, my mind repeated to me), were coloring in books at her coffee table. They both looked up at me for a moment and then went back to what they were doing. The living room was a little cluttered with toys and so forth but remarkably neat for a woman with two children. The television was turned off and the stereo was turned on. Barbara Striesand was singing about love, how it was ageless and evergreen, whatever the hell that meant.
"I really appreciate you doing this for me Billy," Anita was saying. "They get so dirty during the winter and I have such a hard time climbing on the ladder you know. "
"I'm happy to do it. " I assured her, "Where should I start?"
I got the ladder out of her garage and began doing the outsides first, moving from one to the other, scraping and wiping off the accumulation of dirt, grime, road salt, and all of the other shit that floats around in our air or is blown forcefully through it during the winter. Anita stayed in the house for this portion although I caught glimpses of her through the windows when she happened to be in a room that I was cleaning. I watched her whenever I saw her, checking out her form and imagining the possibilities. Though she was slightly chunky, there was nothing in the world wrong with that. Her skin looked soft, her face pretty, and she had beautiful breasts that bounced nicely when she walked. Sure, a teenager wouldn't admit he desired her, such were the commandments of peer pressure, but an adult would have no problem with her whatsoever. And I was most definitely an adult.