When she finally arrived, they told her what we’d all done. School was out by this point, so she had us march down to Miss Broker’s class and apologize to her. She then turned to David.
“Show me,” she ordered.
David drew the bunny again, and she used the eraser to wipe it away so it would uncover the giant dick again. She didn’t say a word until we all got into the car. When we pulled away from the curb she started laughing. While the school wasn’t happy, we never got punished at home for it.
David was our spokesman. If we wanted to do something that we weren’t sure if we could do or not, he was nominated to plead our case. He was also the first one to try something if it looked dangerous. If he didn’t die, then we knew we could all do it.
I was the mediator of the group. If there was a dispute, it was up to me to get it all worked out so everyone could live with the outcome. I’d had plenty of practice because of Alan being a spaz. I’d saved his ass more times than I wanted to count. I could usually talk him out of whatever he said he wanted to do, if it was insane, which it usually was.
LOOKING BACK ON THE Tami and David situation, it all started when Jan Duke used him to make Justin Tune jealous. I tried to talk to him and explain what we all thought was obvious, but he wouldn’t listen. He felt like we all ganged up on him and became a little shit.
I wasn’t there when things really got bad and Tami screamed at him that she never wanted to see him again. I look back, and if I’d done my job as mediator, I don’t think he would have gone as far as he did. Something you had to know about David was that if he got mad, his practice was just to walk away. If you gave him his space and time to think, he calmed down. This was one of the few times that didn’t work. I think Alan might have had something to do with that when he told David that Tami was right.
He started to hang out with kids who were heavy into drinking and taking drugs. Then everything blew up when he threw a party and Lily almost died. I don’t know how, but he was never arrested. The next thing we knew he was sent to his uncle’s farm for the summer. We couldn’t even talk to him because his uncle took his cell phone away.
Tami seemed to withdraw into herself and gradually stopped hanging out with Alan and me. We heard she was seen with Bert Nelson and the country-club set. I knew David would be devastated if he found out. I spent the summer keeping Alan sane and out of trouble.
When David came back from the summer, it was obvious he’d changed. The good news was that he and I and Alan buried our differences and picked up being friends again, so we were the Three Musketeers again.
For David and Tami, it wasn’t quite so easy. Unlike guys, who can say the horrible things to each other and then thirty minutes later all is forgotten and they’re laughing and goofing off, girls remember what you said or did. They seemed to cautiously circle each other. David wanted everything to go back to the way it was before, but for the first time in their lives Tami had secrets that she didn’t share with him: she’d dated Bert and had gotten a scholarship to go to a private school miles away. Of course, she couldn’t keep those secrets forever, and the revelations caused more tension between them.
DAVID UNEXPECTEDLY going out for football ended up being a boon to Alan and me. The guys who used to pick on us now wanted to be David’s friends. David made it clear that he wasn’t dropping us to start hanging out with the jocks. I just sat back and watched him excel at football. I think many people were surprised. I, for one, wasn’t. David was always a good athlete and I remembered when we’d played Little League baseball together. He was always the best player.
When we played baseball, he made sure that his friends were all a part of it. He even made sure Alan was on our team. The coaches would let Alan bat once so he could say he participated, and then he would keep the stats. It wasn’t a surprise when David pulled me in to play baseball in the spring. Alan again was in charge of stats and was much happier when he didn’t have to play.
David also wanted me to play football with him. That was a much longer negotiation. He did talk me into joining a new workout program after school. It was run by a new transfer student, Cassidy Hope.
Like with David, regular exercise combined with a growth spurt finally made me realize that I might as well cave and go out for football. David even found a role for Alan as our coach.
Playing football also got me my first girlfriend, Sammie. Even Alan showed up with a girl, Gina. This was all new territory for us, but we had David to guide us. Actually, his older brother indirectly guided us. Not everything went smoothly, but David taught us some good lessons, like if you go to a school dance with a date, dance with her.
Then I became the luckiest guy in the world when Cassidy decided to go out with me. She was everything I wanted in a girl. I was glad I met her after dating some of the others because they’d shown me what not to do. They’d prepared me for someone like Cassidy. While I didn’t know if she was my forever girl, I had hope that she might be.
I’M REALLY LOOKING forward to this summer. We won State in football and will work hard to do it again. Cassidy’s my girlfriend. I look forward to being able to spend more time with her now that school’s out. Alan is being kept busy coaching, so he isn’t quite the spaz he used to be. As far as David and Tami go, who knows? I do know that she’s in for a surprise. David is no longer her ball of Play-Doh she can shape. He’s his own man now. I’m looking forward to that with mixed emotions. Part of me can’t wait to see how she takes the new David. Part of me shudders at the thought of what might happen.
Chapter 1 – Tami Returns
Saturday May 16
Tracy had invited Tim and me to her lake house for the weekend. Well, technically Pam did the inviting, but she did it on Tracy’s behalf. The two of us anticipated a weekend of water sports and fishing. In any case, I picked Tim up early so we could get to the lake. Pam had texted me and said she and Tracy had arrived last night. Greg was pissed when he found out what I’d be doing. He wanted to go too, but he needed to decorate today. I told him it sucked to be him and dodged a swat from my mom as I rushed out the door. Duke decided he needed to stay home. There were too many new people in his house, and he had to make sure the babies weren’t getting into his toys.
Tim made the call that since we’d be close to Granny’s, we should stop there for breakfast. The place was a zoo because State had graduation today. Tim and I decided to eat at the counter. Granny must have seen us because two giant cinnamon rolls appeared. She seemed to have a knack for delivering them hot out of the oven. They were gooey goodness!
WE MISSED THE DRIVEWAY for the lake house at first. It was nestled in a deeply wooded area. When we finally figured out how to get to Tracy’s weekend house, I was amazed at how beautiful it was. The house sat on a hill and overlooked the blue waters of the lake. When we got out of the Jeep, we found a note on the door that said the girls were around back, though we didn’t hear anything. I looked at the glass-like surface of the calm lake and tried to decide what to do first. Should we try our hand at fishing? Or try out the ski boat that was tied to the dock?
As we went around to the back, I about ran over Tim as he stopped right in front of me. I couldn’t figure out what had caused his abrupt stop and was about to call him a bad name when I froze. There were four teenage girls glistening in the sun, naked. Tracy had the body of a woman. She was the curviest of the bunch. Pam had a California surfer-chick body, which turned me on to no end. Then there were the shorter girls, Mona and Kim. I had a hard time figuring out whose butt was the best.