Chapter 4

“Kevin, wait up,” a girl called from behind me as I was passing through the school gates. Turning, I recognised Cheryl Winters stalking towards me with a determined look on her face.

Cheryl is something of an oddity. Her family isn’t rich enough for her to be in the rich kid clique, she’s not popular enough to be in the popular girls clique, she’s not athletic enough to be a cheerleader and she’s not brainy enough to be a nerd. What she does have is a figure that would make most glamour models weep with envy, although her head looks a little over-large atop her short neck. She has a pleasant face and a pretty smile, though. I rated her a solid seven and a half.

“My mum was supposed to pick me up after school,” Cheryl explained, “but she’s just texted to say she’s got to work overtime to meet a deadline. Would you mind walking me home?”

“No problem.” Having little experience with girls, I tended to put them on a pedestal, worship them and meekly do their bidding. But in this case, I was mostly being honest. I had done my homework and there was quite a while before I needed to be home for dinner. The only problem was that I didn’t have a clue where she lived, but in such a small town the extra distance couldn’t be too onerous. Besides, I wanted to see whether she was in on the whole ‘gay’ conspiracy.

Cheryl beamed a kilowatt smile at me. “I knew you were a good guy when I saw you chatting with Melinda at lunchtime. I thought it was very noble of you to be nice to her after the way she shot you down.”

“Thanks,” I replied, walking marginally behind Cheryl so I could follow her directional cues. From the direction we were walking in, it appeared she didn’t live too far from me. “Melinda lives three doors away and we grew up together. We’re trying to rekindle our friendship,” I explained.

“That’s nice,” said Cheryl. “I feel safe with you. Most boys can’t wait to start groping me but I know you’re not like that.”

I felt a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, but I didn’t say anything.

It turned out that Cheryl lived further from the school than me, but as it was in the same general direction the walk home would only be a few hundred yards.

“Why don’t you come in for a bit,” said Cheryl. “You can help me with my math homework.”

“Will your parents be okay with that?”

“Well, I’m not supposed to have strangers home without letting them know in advance but, in the circumstances, I’m sure they wouldn’t have a problem with you. Besides, my mum won’t be home for a couple of hours yet and my dad will be even later so they needn’t even know.”

There was that expression ‘in the circumstances’ again, but I wasn’t going to turn down the opportunity of some alone-time with a pretty girl.

Cheryl showed me into the lounge. “Would you like a cold soda straight from the fridge?” she asked.

“Please.”

Cheryl fetched us each a soda. “I’m going to put on something more comfortable,” she said. “I won’t be long.”

When Cheryl reappeared I had a sense of deja vu: baggy t-shirt and panties, although unlike my sister, I could see she was still wearing a bra from the outline the straps made. Since her breasts were so big, I guessed she was more comfortable having the support.

Cheryl sat down next to me on the sofa and took out her math homework. Although we were in the same year, I was in the top stream for math and Cheryl was in a lower stream; the topic they were on was one we had covered several weeks back. Still, it would be a useful revision exercise for me.

I let Cheryl do her own workings, but whenever she got stuck I tried to explain what was going on and managed to help her work through the problem areas.

Finally she slammed the books shut and leaned back on the sofa. “All done, and it looks like my own work so I’ll get a good grade without any suspicion of cheating.”

“My pleasure,” I replied.