Chapter 10: A New Friend

Thank God it's Friday, Amy thought as she walked into the girl's locker room. Having gym for first hour sucked, but at least she'd soon have it out of the way and wouldn't have to worry about it again for three whole days. Amy hated gym: she wasn't very good at sports, first of all, and most of the girls in her current class hated her, too. Add to all that the fact that her class was currently doing their swimming lessons and you can understand why Amy couldn't wait for the hour to be finished.

The locker room was already filling up when Amy got inside. It smelled like steam and chlorine, and Amy kept her eyes to the floor as she made her way to her row of lockers. As always her plan was to change as quickly as possible, avoid looking at anyone, and ignore any comments some of the meaner girls might make.

"Hey, it's Amy Torch, Blowjob Queen!"

A bunch of girls giggled at Laura's words. By sheer bad luck Laura's locker happened to be right across from hers. Ever since their falling out Laura's attacks on her had gotten worse—Amy couldn't wait until the semester was over, but that was a ways away since the second marking period had only begun to wind down. As always, Amy refused to respond to the mean girl's insult. She didn't know what she was talking about, anyway. Besides, she'd learned in the months following her estrangement with her former friend that the insults would peter off if she didn't give the popular girl reason to continue with them.

This was the first time Laura had used a sexual insult on her, though, and that made her sort of anxious. Amy had never given a blowjob before a week ago and there was no way Laura could know about that, right? Or did she somehow know about what she'd done in that adult bookstore with the sleazy old perv?

You're being paranoid, Amy told herself. She's just trying to talk tough in front of her friends.

Amy didn't notice anything at first when she opened her locker. All she knew was Laura hadn't said anything else, and that was a relief. She turned to her backpack and pulled out her bathing suit before realizing that everyone seemed to be laughing. When Amy looked back at her locker, she was horrified to find out the reason.

Pasted to the inside of the door and throughout the interior of the locker were pornographic pictures, pages ripped out of dirty magazines. Most of the pictures were of women giving guys head, but there were also a few girl-on-girl images along with a couple gangbang shots. All the girls within eyesight of her locker were laughing uproariously, all except for Laura, who was simply watching the mortified girl with a smug expression on her face.

"Geeze, Aim! I knew you liked porn but isn't this taking it a bit far?"

Laura's comment amplified the laughter of the half-dressed girls surrounding Amy. Teenage girls of all shapes and sizes and in all states of undress were lurching forward, each wanting to revel in the girl's humiliation by soaking in the image of every last porno pic they could. Amy's eyes welled with tears of embarrassment. Laura had been mean to her since their falling out, but never had her former friend used secrets they'd once shared to attack her personally. And, yes, Amy had told Laura once that she'd seen pornography. Laura hadn't been very receptive so Amy hadn't gone into details, but Laura hadn't pulled the idea for this latest attack out of thin air, either.

Snapping out of her petrified state, Amy spun to her side and slammed the door shut. This didn't stop the laughter, though. Amy had to get away—her eyes welled with tears of humiliation as she pressed against one of the girls in her way, trying to make a path of escape. Just then a loud voice made everyone quiet down, though.

"Shit, Laura! Having porn in her locker isn't half as bad as the crap you put in yours!"

Everyone turned, looking for the origin of this comment. Suddenly Amy saw, at the end of the aisle, the new girl confidently walking toward the commotion.

"What are you talking about, Elissa?" Laura spat.

Tears continued to trickle down Amy's face, even as she began to feel better because of the help from this unexpected ally. Elissa had just started attending Westmoreland Middle School about a week before. She was one of those loner types, Amy had noticed, a girl who enjoyed wearing all black and spending lunch alone at a table reading a book. But she wasn't a loner in the normal sense—she wasn't a loner like Amy was, one who sulked around constantly feeling like the outcast. Instead, Elissa looked comfortable being alone. She seemed in her element, actually, always exuding confidence even while other kids made fun of her Goth attire and pierced nose. This was the first time she'd ever really heard Elissa speak, though, and she was just getting warmed up.

"Oh, Laura, you don't have to lie," the suddenly wide-eyed manic teenager grinned as she continued walking down the aisle, easily pushing past anyone in her way. "I think it's sort of cool that you have such strong convictions, you know? I mean, I don't agree with your politics, but I say, to each their own, right?"

Laura forced a nervous laugh. Elissa was right next to her now, and the Goth-girl was winning the ensuing staring contest. She had a maniacal gleam in her eye as she grinned at Amy's tormentor.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Laura stammered.

"Well, here, let's see." With that, Elissa reached across the aisle toward Laura's locker and, before Laura could do anything to stop her, Elissa threw open the door.

All the girls seemed to gasp in unison. Inside her locker were all kinds of racist paraphernalia plastered around its interior—swastikas, confederate flags, pictures of KKK members with the words "White Power!" written underneath. There was even a gruesome photograph of a black man hanging from a tree with the words "animals deserve death" printed boldly as the caption.

In contrast to the sight of Amy's locker, none of the girls were laughing at Laura's. Instead, everyone went dead quiet. One of the black girls down the way was the first to break the silence.

"That's some bullshit," she said, her voice dripping attitude and anger. This began a torrent of similar comments, mostly ones of disgust but some filled with anger, too. Even Laura's supposed friends were shying away from the dumbstruck girl, obviously trying to literally distance themselves from her.

"None of that's mine, I swear!" Laura finally stuttered in shock. But no one was listening.

"Come on, let's get out of here." Amy looked over and saw Elissa, smiling mischievously and pulling on her arm. The smile was infectious, and Amy let out a slight laugh before following the girl away from the chaos and then out of the locker room altogether.

With the silence closed behind them, the two girls burst into laughter in the empty school hallway. When Amy finally calmed down she asked, "Did you—you did that?"

The girl looked as proud as anyone Amy had ever seen. "Yep! Come on, let's get out of here and I'll tell you all about it."

"Wait, where are we going?"

Elissa was already walking away. "Home, of course! I don't feel like school today. Come on, hurry up before someone catches us!"

Amy had never skipped class before. But she could either follow her new friend and see where it took her, or go back into the locker room where Laura was no doubt waiting to somehow retaliate against her for what Elissa had done. The 14-year-old suddenly decided it was an easy choice.

Twenty minutes later the two girls were walking down a quiet residential street. They'd left the school so abruptly that Amy hadn't thought of going back to her regular locker and getting her coat, and now she was freezing. Elissa didn't seem to mind the weather, even though she wasn't wearing a coat, either.

"So you caught them yesterday, putting that stuff inside my locker?" Amy asked, her teeth chattering slightly. "Why didn't you warn me?"

Elissa shrugged. "Yeah, sorry about that. I hate swimming so I told Mr. Match I was on the rag for like, the eighth day in a row... anyway, I was reading a row over and heard her and her stupid bimbo-friends laughing, and, well... when I found out why they were I thought about telling you, or taking them down, but it was like... I thought my idea was a lot funnier. I mean, what's worse? Liking porn or being a racist?"

Amy grinned. "Well, thanks for getting her back for me, but I'm still embarrassed. And those pictures are still up inside my locker!"

"Oh, get over it," the Goth-garbed girl said, a fog of breath blowing from her mouth. "No one is gonna believe you would put those up. It was such an amateur prank! Just get to school early on Monday and throw them away before anyone else gets there, and you'll be fine. In a couple weeks no one will remember those pictures but trust me, everyone will remember the swastikas and lynch-mob photos in Laura's locker!"

"Yeah," Amy nodded with a grin. Elissa was quickly becoming one of the strangest friends she'd ever had, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Trying her best to ignore the cold she asked, "So where are we going anyway?"

"Like I said, home!" Elissa replied, pointing at a house two doors down from where they were.

When the two teens got to the front door Elissa dropped her book bag and dug her keys out of her purse. Amy looked around, anxious to get inside and out of the cold. It was a pretty nice house, nicer than hers, and there were no cars in the driveway. When they got inside Amy followed her new friend downstairs to the basement.

It was a really nice basement—completely finished, with two large over-stuffed couches and a recliner, a large wide-screen television, and a fireplace to boot. The walls were painted a dark shade of purple and the carpet was a light lavender color, giving the room a sort of dark-yet-light boxed in feel. Elissa dropped her book bag and began talking about how she spent most of her time down here even though she had a bedroom upstairs. She went about turning on a couple black-lights and then started up the gas-fireplace before finally plopping down onto one of the sofas.

"Wow," Amy observed, "this is cool. When did you move here again?"

Elissa shrugged. She was lying back on the sofa, and for the first time Amy realized what a nice body the girl had. Her breasts were smaller than Amy's, but she was incredibly skinny and had a perfectly curved waistline.

"I've lived here all my life, actually," she explained. "I'm not new to Westmoreland because of a move, I'm new because I got kicked out of St. Aquinas'."

Amy took a seat on the other sofa, a quizzical look on her cute young face. "St. Aquinas'? You mean you went to a Catholic school?"

"Bingo!" the Goth-girl grinned. "Just for a couple years, though, a totally failed experiment on my parents' part. Before that I was at Ebony Rose for a while, and before that even I was at the Gardner School."

"You were at Ebony Rose and Gardner?!" Amy exclaimed. She'd never known anyone who'd attended either of those "gifted children" schools before.

"Yep," Elissa sighed. "I went to Gardner from second to fifth grade, got kicked out for pulling the fire alarm, then went to Rose. That didn't work out well either because apparently you're not allowed to jerk off boys in the middle of class. That's how I ended up at Aquinas. I didn't really fit in there either, though."

Amy's eyes were wide with curiosity. "You jerked off a boy in the middle of class?!? How old were you?!"

Elissa grinned slyly. "Oh, I was... what? Eleven? Who cares. I hated that place. Jerking off mathematical geniuses was the only fun thing to do. Westmoreland is the best school I've ever attended, hands down!"

Amy rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right," she grumbled. "I hate it. I can't wait until next year..."

"Oh, yeah!" Elissa chirped, suddenly excited. She jumped up from her laying position and stared intently at Amy with wide, happy eyes. "High school boys! I can't wait!"

Amy blushed. She hadn't meant it like that, but Elissa seemed to interpret everything the way she wanted.

"That gives me an awesome idea," the Goth-girl said excitedly. "Have you ever kissed a guy?"

Amy was surprised by the question. "Uhm, sure," she said. "Why?"

"Well," Elissa replied, scooting closer to Amy, "I haven't. I've never kissed anybody! Can you believe that?"

Amy began to feel a bit uncomfortable. "Wait," she said, "didn't you... jerk a boy off before?"

"I never kissed him," Elissa grinned. "And like, my older brother, he has this friend, really cute guy. Gorgeous, actually. Strong, so hot, oh my God you have no idea, Aim, no idea. He's like, perfect! And Will, that's my brother, he's hanging out with this guy tonight, and he wants me to come with. And he even told me that this guy, I guess he has this huge crush on me, so I might be making out for the first time ever, can you believe that?"

"Wow," Amy said. What did this have to do with anything? she wondered.

"Anyway, well, I don't know the first thing about kissing. You can teach me!"

"What?!" Amy exclaimed with a nervous laugh.

"Come on, please! What's the big deal? I don't want to make out with this guy tonight like a total amateur!"

"I don't know, Elissa," the flabbergasted girl stammered. "Isn't that a bit... I mean..."

Elissa laughed loudly. "Cliché! Yeah, it is, because everybody does it! It's no big deal. And by the way, my friends call me Lessy," Elissa said. She was smiling prettily, but her eyes were intense.

Amy didn't know what to think. She'd never kissed a girl and had never wanted to, despite all the girl-on-girl porn movies and stories she'd read. And frankly, Amy was beginning to think that this girl was completely bonkers. "I mean, Lessy, I... ," Amy began to say.

"It'll be fun! We'll be like those girls from Cruel Intentions. You can be Sarah Michelle Gellar and I'll be Selma Blair... what do you say?"

Amy laughed. There was something endearing about the confident, almost arrogant way Lessy rationalized such an outrageous proposal. She clearly was a bit insane. She'd also slid right up next to her now, uncomfortably close, in fact. Their thighs were touching one another and Elissa seemed ready to pounce.

"Look, Lessy, I'm not really—," Amy said, feeling embarrassed.

"Shh," Elissa interrupted. "You can just pretend to be this guy, okay? He's the shy sort, too, so it's perfect. I'm going to end up being the aggressive one tonight I'm sure..."

Amy felt the girl press against her then. She looked away from her cute, pleading, manic-looking friend and began to speak, and just then felt the girl's soft lips press against the corner of her mouth.