Valentine’s Day Is Dumb

9:08 A.M., Friday, February 13, 2015

Honolulu, HI

Valentine’s Day was a stupid holiday. Well, maybe it was OK for grown-ups and even teenagers, but not for eight-year-olds in the third grade. Valentine’s Day was supposed to be all about being in love and doing something for your sweetheart, but instead you had to give a card to everybody in class. You had to act like you liked everybody, when really you only liked some of them.

Paul had made some friends since moving here in January. Sam and George were friends now, and it looked like maybe Takeo and Sally were going to be friends too. And of course, there was Paula.

The little boy wasn’t quite sure what to think about Paula these days. She had given him another look the next day, just like she said she would. She’d even flashed her panties at him a few days later. But then he’d noticed that she was doing the bending over thing when other boys could see, and sometimes she flashed her panties at other boys. It always looked like an accident and Paul would have thought that they were accidents but because he knew her, he also knew that she was doing it on purpose.

It bugged him. Really, they were her nipples and her panties so she could show them to anybody she wanted, but that was the special thing she did with him, and he always thought it was just him. He had pulled up his shirt so she could see his chest, but big deal. He was a boy after all. One time he had summoned up the courage to drop his pants and let her see him in his undershorts. They had almost got caught that time so they agreed to not take anything off at school, even though they could still peek. And now she was showing off to other boys. Yeah, it bugged him alright.

But even with that, she was his best friend. They had so much in common: both new to Honolulu, both new to this school, both without any grandparents or cousins and such; they even had the same name, almost. If he had been going to give a card to just one person, it would have been Paula Akron.

She was opening the card now. He hoped she could figure out the secret message in it. He had seen her reading a book: Secret Codes and Ciphers. When she was done reading it, he read it. It was really a book for fourth graders, but they were both good readers. He had written a note in the card and hoped she would figure it out. This is what he wrote:

5

When we first met I didn’t know I would like a person just like you to be my friend Paula.

What all this meant of course was that there was a secret message that she could read by reading every fifth word, the words in red. He had written a little note for each kid, but only Paula’s was in colors or had a secret message. Would she catch it?

He looked over at her. Yes, she was reading it. Then she scratched her head and read it again, slowly. She looked at him and held up her fist. One after another, she raised her fingers, pausing dramatically before adding the thumb. Then, she winked. Paul grinned back at her, but now Sam was talking to him and he had to pay attention to that. It was OK though; she had gotten the message.

Maybe Not So Dumb

12:30 P.M., Saturday, February 14, 2015

Honolulu, HI

“I’m not really Paul’s girlfriend,” the little girl was explaining, “because we’re both only eight years old. Maybe after we grow up, I’ll be his girlfriend.”

The little boy wrinkled his nose. “I don’t think I ever want a girlfriend. All boyfriends and girlfriends do is sit around and make goo-goo eyes at each other and kiss and do sex stuff. I like to ride my bike and play video games and swim and stuff.”

Tamera Macon looked at her son sharply. “Sex stuff? What do you know about sex stuff?”

Paul blushed. Then he looked at Paula and blushed brighter red than before.

“Well, you, um...” he started, “you hear about it on TV and some of the kids at school talk about it. I couldn’t do it; it would be too embarrassing.”

His parents seemed satisfied with this. What the boy had said was true, mostly. Oh, sure, he had left out Hustler, and the website where he had been able to read just a little bit about voice changing, pubic hair, and menstruation. He now knew that his best friend Paula would not have hair on her pussy, though he still wasn’t sure why some of the women in the magazines didn’t have hair either. He also knew that some girls started their period as young as eight, but that most did not. He was also starting to think that maybe, in the right circumstances, he could get naked with a girl and not die on the spot from shame.