Chapter 2: Girls aren't so icky after all

The next day at school, the principal came on the PA system and announced that the school had a hero amongst us, and he named me. Me? A hero? No way. Mr. Ullman went on to say that I had remained calm and aided in the rescue of Mrs. Davidson and the driver of the car, as well as the kids on and off the bus. Remained calm? That didn't happen.

Well, that set off another round of nice-goin's and attaboys from the kids, just like the last time. Mr. Ullman gave me a letter to take home to my parents, and it said I had done something very courageous and my parents should be very proud of me. I already knew that because Constable Dupuis had told them what I'd done. Anyway, I was famous again ... and that got me another kiss, this time from Mrs. Davidson when I visited her in hospital. She wouldn't be there for long, but she wouldn't be driving the bus for a while, either.

I felt about ten feet tall, even though I thought it was all kind of phoney. I was no hero, I was a scared kid. I just did what I could ... and that wasn't much. But it didn't matter what I said, everyone thought I was, so I had to live with it. Tough! Kelsey Barnes came by my room and said she just knew I was going to do something special. She just knew it! Yeah, sure.

Constable Dupuis stopped at our house and gave my mother some information on a first aid course that I could attend. It wasn't the real grownup version, but it was designed for "young people and seniors" to learn the basics on how to help people who were in bad situations. He gave Mom a book that told all about what I needed to learn, and I spent a couple of nights reading all about what I should do if such-and-such happened. I didn't know how I would be able to remember all this stuff ... especially when I remembered back to when I was on the bus and how scared I was. Anyway, I promised Mom and Dad I would study the book and learn as much as I could. I didn't know when I would ever get to use any of this stuff, but I made a promise to myself that I would learn everything in the book, and I tried to keep that promise.

I passed my thirteenth birthday and I was now officially a teenager. I didn't feel anything like my sister Danielle did when she was that age. As far as she was concerned, she was now grown up and didn't have to listen to some kid ... especially me. Well, now I was thirteen, so I didn't have to listen to her lord it over me all the time. Danielle and her girlfriends were now in grade eleven at Mountainview High, and she was trying out for cheerleader. No way she was going to be a cheerleader. I would never hear the end of it if she accidentally got picked. So, guess what ... she got picked. Rats!

Strange things were happening to our bodies, too. Danielle suddenly had boobs. Not real big ones, but you could tell they were there. She made a big production number out of moving up in bra size, not that I cared. But I did notice more about the girls in grade nine and the ones I saw in high school. Somehow or other, girls weren't so icky anymore. Not that I went out on dates with any girl. I wasn't that interested, but I did notice some of the pretty ones ... like Kelsey Barnes.

My body was changing too. I was a lot taller and I had more muscles now. I wasn't the biggest kid in class; Chug and Pigpen were the title holders. But I wasn't the shrimp or the skinny dork I used to be. I also noticed I had hair growing near my penis. I didn't expect that, but when I was in the locker room getting changed for PE or soccer, I noticed I was one of the few kids who did have hair there. And I also noticed I wasn't the smallest in the dink department either. Now it's not like I went around checking all the guys out, but when you're in the shower it's not hard to sneak a peek at the other guys and see how you compare, right? So, maybe I was going to be normal, like other grownup guys. That was a big relief.

When I got to high school, Danielle had already graduated and was going to some school where they taught women how to type and take dictation and stuff. Mom had taught her how to cook, but I'm glad I didn't have to eat what she cooked very often. She wasn't very good at it. I felt sorry for the poor slob she married. He'd probably starve to death.

By the time I turned fifteen, I was definitely interested in girls. Mom taught me how to dance, even before they made us take dance lessons in PE last year. Dad said Mom was a real good dancer and I should learn from her, so I was okay with that. Now I could take some girl I liked to the school dance and not embarrass myself. But deciding who to take meant I had to ask someone first, and that was a real problem. I wasn't the most confident guy around girls, so I didn't know quite what to do.

Chug had a partial solution for me.

"Just go stag and pick one of the girls you like from the ones who go by themselves too," he said.

That sounded like a sensible solution, so I agreed and we went to the next dance by ourselves, bragging to each other about the hot babes we would pick up that night. Yeah, right! When we got there, we sat up in the grandstand and looked the situation over. I didn't see any girls that were there by themselves. They were all in bunches of three or four or more, talking to each other. As a matter of fact, when I looked around, most of the guys who didn't have a date were doing the same ... just like Chug and me.

I didn't know what to do, but Chug was elbowing me in the side, commenting about some of the unattached girls.

"Check the jugs on Mary Jean Rappaport, Soup. Wouldn't you love to get your hands on those?"

Chug wasn't the smoothest guy to hang out with, but we'd been friends for years, so I'd kind of got used to him. Anyway, we were sitting up near the top of the stands and Chug was offering his fairly crude comments about the various girls as he eyeballed the possibilities. I wasn't really paying much attention, just watching some of the kids on the gym floor, dancing, or what they thought was dancing. I knew I could do better than that. Mom made sure of it.

Anyway, low and behold, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a girl heading our way and when I looked up, I realized it was Kelsey Barnes. Now Kelsey had grown up along with us and I guess I hadn't really paid attention to just how grown up she looked, but she was looking pretty good to me.

"Hi, Ian. Would you like to dance with me?" she asked, bold as brass.

"Uhhm ... uh ... yeah ... sure," I finally managed, standing and nearly tripping and falling down two or three rows of benches.

Kelsey held out her hand and I took it and we walked down the stairway to the gym floor and out with the other kids. It just so happened that the music was fairly slow, so I held my hands and arms in the position my mom taught me and Kelsey stepped right into them. It took a few seconds before I found the rhythm of the music and we began. I don't think I even looked at Kelsey's face for the first number. I was watching my feet to make sure I didn't step on her toes.