Chapter 2: First Steps

That next morning I woke up late. Jane never wakes up early, but I am as reliable as an alarm clock. She was on her back with her hands above her head in an unconscious gesture of abandon. It was early fall, and we were having an Indian summer. The covers were kicked off to the floor and Jane's nightgown, a T-shirt of mine, was twisted above her waist. Her puffy little sex was exposed from a bent knee. Although we needed to hurry up and get ready to make it to the bus, I couldn't resist her. With our bath still vividly burned into my brain, I looked at her. Laying on my side with my head propped up on my hand, I softly ran my fingers along the inside of her thigh back and forth getting closer to her center. Her breathing was getting shallower, but she looked like she was still asleep. Finally, I ran my fingers over her oh so very soft pussy; it was the softest and smoothest thing I have ever felt. It was so amazing that the rest of her could be so hard in comparison, after all she was only seven and skinny like me, and this part of her was so soft. I traced one lip then moving over her mound went back down the other.

I continued this for several minutes, and then gently cupped her exquisite pussy in my hand and gently squeezed. I looked up her body from where my hand held paradise over her flat little belly and her round little belly button to her ribs to see her lips in a soft little smile and her eyes looking into mine. I felt my heart swell to bursting and kissed her as best as I could. Our tongues never got involved, we didn't discover that for some time, but we sucked and caressed one another's lips with passion.

Ending our kiss she said "That feels good." And letting me know what she meant, she pushed her hips up to put more pressure on my hand holding her so intimately. My groin gave a lurch, and the tingling got stronger when she said that.

Reluctantly I let go of her and said, "Morning, we got to hurry up or we will miss the bus."

"m'kay" she said while stretching like a cat arching her back and rolling over.

I lightly smacked her delightfully round and soft little buns and said, "C'mon we won't make it."

Ten minutes didn't mean much to her at seven, but I knew we had to get a move on, or we would miss the bus, even with the driver waiting a few minutes for us as she would do. Jane saw me scrambling to get dressed and caught on and hurriedly dressed too. Grabbing her library book and putting the house key, tied to an old shoelace, around my neck we headed to the door. We were late, but the driver saw us running around the corner and waited for us. She was a nice lady with two boys of her own that walked to school. Our stop was the farthest out, and the bus was always empty when we got on it.

We typically sat a row back from the front across from the driver. All the younger kids did. The high school was next to the grade school, which meant that teenagers rode the bus too. The bus driver kept a sharp eye out for the younger ones and didn't tolerate any foolishness from the teenagers. I had a couple of friends who got on at the last stop, but Jane didn't have anybody in her class rinding this bus so we sat together the whole time. She got the window, and I took the outside so I could talk to a friend. It's too bad that the only kid Jane's age that rode our bus was a boy and a little jerk, but there was a little girl a year younger that Jane would talk to.

Joey Milikan, my best friend since last year when he moved here, got on towards the end of the bus ride, was in a talkative mood this morning, but I was distracted to say the least. I wanted to hold Jane's hand, but there was no way I could here on the bus, where anybody could see.

"I'm getting a Nintendo for my birthday this weekend!" He crowed.

I would have been jealous, but I was still euphoric from my encounters with Jane and replied, "That's cool."

"Can you come to my birthday party Saturday? We are going to the Pizza Club!"

I looked at him then looked at Jane. He said, "Jane can come too!"

Jane perked up at that and said, "I can?"

"Sure."

"My Mom works Saturday, I don't know how we would get there." I informed him disappointed.

"We can come pick you up! Come on, come to my party."

"OK, cool. When?"

"One O'clock."

"Thanks Joey."

The bus arrived at this point, and the grade-schoolers got off. As we walked to class I told Joey, "Thanks for letting Jane come. We have never been to the Pizza Club before."

"Don't tell my Mom but I was supposed to ask you both anyway and I forgot." I thought to myself 'I better remind Jane to keep quiet about Mom'.

It was no secret that Jane and I were the soon to be coined "Latchkey Kids" and were poor to boot. However, how little supervision we did get from our Mom wasn't known, or surely Social Services would have tried to take us away. I was somewhat aware of this and made attempts to keep our neglect as secret as possible. We were just fortunate to have the house from Gary. That was the best thing he ever did on purpose, Jane was an accident, and it saved us.

Jane and I had stayed the night over with Joey before, and his mother, a housewife, kind of made me uncomfortable. She didn't approve of my mother, and I felt by association that she didn't approve of me. She loved Jane though. Joey had an older brother by 5 years, who was a teenager but no sisters. I could tell Mrs. Milikan wanted to mother Jane when we would be there, starting in the 3rd grade, with Jane being only 5 years old. Jane was pretty independent and didn't want the mother relationship Mrs. Milikan tried to develop with her. Jane had a family, me. She identified and was attached to me so firmly that I don't think she would have missed Mom if she never came home. By not approving of Jane's relationship with me it sort of transferred that to her too in Jane's mind. If you didn't like her brother, you didn't like her was how she looked at it. But, Mrs. Milikan didn't give up, and Jane, always quiet and polite around adults, tolerated her attempts at mothering quite well. She would take off in a moment's notice to join Joey and me though, and I would make sure to wait for her. As long as we were near each other, we were happy. We didn't have to be interacting with each other, just in the same area.

After school on the bus Joey was talking about everything he would do for his birthday. I used to get caught up in it, but now it just reminds me of how Jane and I didn't get even a happy birthday that often from Mom anymore. Joey was oblivious to this though. Thankfully he wasn't on the bus with us for more than 10 minutes. As soon as he got off the bus, I huddled close to Jane talking quietly.

"Do really want to go to his party? I can just say Mom said no if you don't want to go."

"I want to go. I have never been to 'Pizza Club' before. I wish we could go there on our birthday."

We always celebrated our birthday together; they were one day apart. So it was always 'our' birthday and never separate. Of course, we never had a party, but we did celebrate on our own. Our birthday was two days long. Hers then mine, celebrated on both days.

"Me too, but Mom would never take us," I said.

"I know."

"On our next birthday we will do something special. I promise," I said impulsively.

I got a big smile for that and a hug. For a hug, I would do almost anything she asked. Somehow, making her happy, made me happy. When things got bad, and they did, I would just try to cheer her up. I forgot about my problems by making her forget about hers.

Soon it was our stop, and walking by the driver, we said our goodbyes.

"Don't tell anybody this but you two are my favorite kids. You are the only two who always say Good Morning and Goodbye to me every day. I wish my two were like you; they fight like cats and dogs. You take good care of your sister and should be proud of yourself," the bus driver told us.

I was stunned. She had always been nice but nobody, and I do mean nobody ever told me something so nice like that other than my sister. I mumbled an embarrassed 'Thanks', and she shut the door and drove off. I turned to Jane, and she threw her arms around me for the second time this afternoon, and gave me a heartfelt hug and I returned it. Being in our own neighborhood with little possibility of seeing anybody from school we held hands and walked home.

"Brett, I got a field trip Wednesday. Can you get Mom to sign my slip and get money," she asked.

"Sure, I will try Sunday before she goes out."

Mom would take us to the grocery store and, occasionally, K-Mart to get us stuff we needed on Sundays, her day off. We didn't eat that well, but she still made the attempt to be a mother sometimes. We did grow and need new clothes and although I don't think she ate but a couple meals a week at home, she still kept food in the house for us. A can of spaghettios and canned vegetables often made a meal for Jane and me. We never had any snack food or junk food. It was too expensive. That doesn't mean we did without all the time.