Natalie was sitting in the sun. She was covered with sun-screen to protect her skin. The grass was mowed and the blades were all trimmed short and neatly. She inhaled deeply to catch the scent of the freshly-cut grass. She loved that smell. It made her feel fresh and clean like right after a shower.

Her sister and brother were away at some silly game. She has happy to be alone and have some peace and quiet. She loved them dearly but sometimes they could make her feel so vexed.

“Thank goodness school is finished and I have the whole summer to be free!”

That was her unspoken thought as she stretched out on the pretty beach towel with the family of flamingoes looking into the setting sun.

She was wearing the pretty two-piece swimsuit that her mother picked out for her and that her daddy thought was much too skimpy for his young and innocent little princess. Natalie knew it was fairly modest by the current standards at the pool or the beach. She was still not fully-grown and a bit self-conscious about her lack of upper body curves. Here, in the privacy of her own backyard, she had no worries about boys seeing her without the benefit of concealing layers of clothing.

She had a nice book to read about a young girl lost in the woods and surrounded by a band of wolves. It reminded her of how she felt in school sometimes when the little packs of boys clustered around her at lunch or on the field when she was practicing.

“I wish I knew what they were thinking!”

Natalie had a hard time figuring out what the boys were really thinking. She was not even certain that if she did know, it would make any sense to her. Boys had a tendency to see things in a different way than girls. Sometimes, it was a lot more comfortable to be with her girlfriends or boys who were totally interested in something else like sports or collecting stuff. It was a lot more fun to be just having a good time doing something interesting without having to pretend about anything for anybody.

The book was getting to a very intense scene and she was getting so flustered with the action that she had to set it down and shut her eyes deep in her own thoughts. The sound of the wind in the tree branches and the chirp of some unidentified insect blended into the song of the birds in the nearby bird bath. They were chattering away having the time of their life. It was so interesting to see them oblivious to her presence when she opened her tightly closed eyes.

Natalie wished she could be a songbird hopping about in the shower without a care in the world. They seemed to have all the fun and she had to do her homework and watch her younger brother and even take out the garbage just when she had something important to do. No, birds definitely had it easy. Certainly, they had it a whole lot easier than teenaged girls.