The courts had ruled it unconstitutional, but the Negroes still sat at the back, which Nora didn’t find odd; it was so they could talk with one another. She always sat middle-right, herself, Bus 6 to her clarinet lesson, that side being better for seeing store windows. She hoped to get a pleated skirt for her birthday. Penney’s had the best.

Preston and Rusty were already in high school, but she knew who everybody was. Well, not the Negroes.

“Hi, babe.” The two plopped down, Rusty beside Nora, Preston behind. Preston had an acne problem for which he used a cream for which he box said flesh tone. Rusty’s sleeves were rolled up, the cool-guy look.

“Wanna cig?”

She hadn’t talked to older boys that much. “I don’t smoke,” she hoped sounding casual. “Besides, we’re on the bus.”

“Like to swim? We go to the slough sometimes.”

“My folks won’t let me.”

“So don’t tell ‘em. Like the Roxie?”

She wasn’t going to look like a little kid. “Sure.”

Rusty eyed Preston, then returned to her. “Wanna go with us? Back row, you know.”

She flinched. Everybody knew about the back. “My stop’s coming up” she lied.

Rusty scooted closer. “How ‘bout this for now?” and put a finger on the front of her cardigan.

Retreating into the seat back was to no avail. Turning didn’t work either.

Rusty grinned back at his buddy. “Think she likes me.”

Nora looked for help, but knew that Negroes rarely look up. “Please don’t.”

“Let’s have some fun, baby.”

His friend giggled and reached over the seat. “Me, too.”

She tried to push them off, but they rubbed her breasts anyway.

“Wearing pretty panties, pretty girl?” Rusty whispered as tried to pry her legs apart.

She tried to not let him, but he got his hand between them before pulling hers into his crotch. “Here’s something that likes you.”

She was scared to even move.

“So maybe a little rub-a-dub?”

Not knowing what else to do, she did what he said, but as she started to cry, a Negress with a grocery bag claimed the seat across, making Nora thankful for the court decision.

“See you later, pretty girl,” and the two boys got off.

Her friend Kara Lee could tell from Nora’s eyes.

Kara Lee’s brother Robin was three grades ahead, a halfback, and Rusty and Preston, who’d been smoking behind the grandstands, got the tar beat out of them after the game. They told the cops that it was too dark to see who it was.

Don’t worry about those assholes anymore, Kara Lee told her.

Robin didn’t pay much attention to his sister’s friends, too much of an age gap. They giggled too much.

Only when his sister told him about Rusty and Preston did he give this one much thought. Just a bird, but she was Kara Lee’s friend and guys didn’t bully girls. It was easy to cower one while he took care of the other. He wasn’t even late to the party and scored on Heather.

It was a few weeks later when his sister’s friend passed him on the library steps. “Thank you,” she said, though he almost couldn’t hear her, and she darted up the steps.

It was after dinner, him and his sister clearing the table. “Hey, Kar?”

“Yeh?”

“Your friend that those guys bugged. She told me thanks.”

“Nora. Because you kicked their butts.”

“She’s OK?”

“Sure.”

She’d probably be pretty when she got older. He hoped she’d seen him make his up-the-middle touchdown.

Of course Nora wasn’t a real cheerleader. Even if she were in high school, she’d not be popular enough. After Kara Lee’s brother did whatever he did, though, Nora was his secret cheerleader. When they needed to score, he’d take the ball and do it. When the other team threatened, he’d sack the quarterback, and when his sister said that he wasn’t even on that team, Nora found it surprising, there being just one team.

Nora was proud, him being her friend’s brother.

As the team headed to the locker room, the real cheerleaders would crowd the doorway, hugs for their heroes. When the team came back out, though, she and Kara Lee would find Robin and Kara Lee would give him a kiss, right on the lips, Nora excited just to be there.

“What’dya think, Nora Bird?” he once asked, not averse to a rehash of his run in which he’d shed two tacklers. She’d jumped up and down, watching. Better than that, though, was being called “Nora Bird.”

“I think you’re really good.”

“Well, Stanley made me the block.”

“I still think you’re really good.”

Nora liked books about young women and mysterious strangers in remote castles, but as much as her friends talked about going all the way, none had even come close. That’s why she liked books, because you could pretend.

The guys egged Robin to down a six-pack, but one was all he wanted. Rally girls, having checked to make sure their steady was otherwise occupied, squeezed against him, giggling with such insights as, “You’ve got the moves.”

Robin couldn’t ignore Jill, though, as she’d brought him chips and shrieked at his witticisms. When she was by the refrigerator, he’d reached around behind and she’d leaned back.

“Wanna go out on the porch, Mr. Touchdown Man,” her invitation, her tongue on his teeth. It felt slobbery.

In school plays, Jill was known for changing backstage if Mrs. Grule weren’t around, saving going to the dressing room. His teammates thought she had the best boobs, but he thought it was her bra.

Behind the hedge, she locked her heels around him and he rode her hard. He liked getting it off, but she wasn’t that much different than Sarah or Katherine or whoever. Helped him relax, though.

He helped tonight’s one back into her outfit because a guy should. She’d probably tell the squad she came three times. Heather had claimed two in the back of her folks’ station wagon, but they’d had more time.

After football there’d be basketball. Keep scoring.

If she weren’t her girlfriend’s brother, Nora figured, Robin wouldn’t even know who she was. If he weren’t her friend’s brother, Rusty and Preston would make her go swimming with them or sit in the back of the Roxie.

When Robin asked Nora who were her teachers, he agreed that Mr. Wyman never changed his sports coat and that Miss Barlow maybe had been a spy, how she could see out of the corner of her eye.

Nora was afraid that her story about Miss Barlow catching Bobby Ames reading a Captain Midnight might seem stupid, but he’d laughed and said that Miss Barlow probably used secret mirrors. Nora turned beet red, excited at them having something to discuss.

If the girls were making cookies, Robin would try sneaking some dough and Kara Lee would make him wash the mixing bowl as payment. Once he snuck a blob of soapsuds in her hair and escaped before she noticed.

Once when the three were in the back, Kara Lee attacked her brother and he’d lifted her by her feet to swing like a pendulum.

Another time when he helped them cut pictures out of National Geographics for a social studies mural, Nora came upon one of an African woman with bare breasts, but flipped the page before he saw.

She wished she had her own brother, one like Robin, one who used aftershave.

“You sorta’ like him, right?” mentioned Kara Lee afterward.

It’s hard to hide things. “Sure. He’s your brother.”

“Because we’re little to him, we don’t mess up his life,” his sister’s assessment.

“Right,” though she didn’t really see how they might.

What Robin lacked in dramatic finesse, he made up in presence. There were better actors for the lead roles, but for a character part, he was a crowd-pleaser. Mrs. Grule cowed her football counterpart into a practice schedule that freed him to do both.

Robin knew he had it good, Mrs. Grule covering his rehearsal lines while he attacked tackling dummies. Near opening night, he’d learn where to stand.

Post-game football events were usually rowdy. Cast parties, on the other hand, were more refined, maybe wine, not beer. Parents thought that thespians were better behaved, but in the end, footballers took rally girls to their cars, while thespian boys took thespian girls upstairs.

He’d found himself with Katherine who’d sipped a quarter of a wine cooler and made it known that she’d lost all inhibitions. Joanne, at whose house they were, signaled the guest room.

There was a towel already on the chair. “Joanne says I have to put it under me,” but when she worked herself off of it and he tried to pull it back, “Fuck it,” she giggled.

Back in the den, his buddies gave him a thumbs-up and Katherine disappeared into a huddle of girlfriends.

He’d sem Kara Lee and Nora outside the dressing room door on his way to the party, and wished they’d come along to talk about the play.

The show was several days past before he again crossed paths with his fan, sitting on the porch with his sister.

“You were really funny,” said Nora

“Runs in the family,” Robin trying to rumple his sister’s hair

A brother can do that, thought Nora. Wish I had one.

“Attention, Hollywood! May I present Yours Truly,” Robin boomed, then turned to Nora. “Except Mrs. Grule doesn’t trust me with more lines than my fingers and toes,” looking at his foot. “OK, my right toe.”

All three laughed.

Robin reached over to rumple Nora’s hair, as well. “Lend me a foot and maybe I’ll get more lines, maybe,” and all three laughed again.

The team banquet was a gala event. They’d taken District. Getting knocked out first round of State was a bummer, but the school that beat them went on to take second. Robin was sure to pull in some awards.

The problem for him was that whomever he took would have expectations. There’d be the Christmas Dance, then the Prom. Why’d there even have to be this banquet!

But Kara Lee and her friend playing Monopoly got him thinking. “Need another player?”

“Sorry. Already started, but if you want to start with zero, we’ll let you.”

After spending his Get out of Jail Free card, he decided to see how his banquet solution sounded.

“You two birds?”

“She’s a vulture and I’m an eagle,” decided his sister.

“Whatever. So here’s a deal. Since you’re both fledglings, you add up to one, so you two want to go to the Gridiron Banquet?”

The girls looked astonished.

“Probably be boring,” he admitted, already knowing it sounded stupid. “Just an idea.”

“Maybe if we get to call it a double date and you dress up and we don’t have to share a plate,” decided Kara Lee. “Plus you have to get us corsages.”

There were by now two railroads left, but they gave them to him, as he’d never catch up.

When Robin let it be known that he’d be bringing his little sister and friend to the banquet, the guys thought he was joking. When they realized he wasn’t, they thought he was pretty smart, as those of the rally squad who didn’t get dates could bid for him afterward. The rally girls thought the idea of taking your sister was cute.

Coach was pleased, football being about character. Of course they wouldn’t have to share a plate.

Kara Lee decided they’d both ride in the front. Even if it wasn’t a real date, they’d get to sit like one.

The two chose a tie that would look good with both their outfits. Nora had just worn hers as a bridesmaid for her cousin’s wedding.

They kept their bra discussion to themselves, agreeing a nice one is part of being dressed up. You didn’t want guys looking, but if they did, you should look nice. Nora ended up buying ones with barely any padding, the lady saying she had a nice figure.

The day before the event, Kara Lee told her, “I kiss him goodnight all the time, but tomorrow you can, too.”

“No way!”

“You need to practice,” and with that, Kara Lee pulled her onto the bed and they did that.

Robin grinned like a fool when Nora’s mom pinned on her corsage.

The girls looked so cute to each other that they kissed. Pretty funny, the three realized, two girls kissing, going out with the same guy, but who cared? Kara Lee sat in the middle, going; Nora would get the middle, coming back, Robin grinning like he had the entire rally squad in tow. Nora hoped he could tell she’d on nylons. Her dress made her look taller. She liked when he peeked at the top of her bra. Her corsage perched proudly.

As the other girls made big deals of taking their date’s arm. Robin offered both elbows. AS She’d walked on a boy’s arm at her cousin’s wedding, she knew how.

Robin had warned, “They’ll watch you two hobble,” but they’d worn heels anyway. What would a guy know? At the door, Nora tripped. Kara Lee was better locked on. The two of them mess around at home, she decided, so he’d know.

At least she knew how to select the silverware. The guys, Robin included, didn’t. Seating was player, date, player, date, but with Robin’s two, she had a girl on her other side, one which she didn’t like — “Oh, I went to that school, but it seems so long ago. Robin and me, we went to the lake together, remember Robin?”

After that, the girl seemed in less need of being superior. “I like your dress. If my slip shows, promise to tell me?” By the time of the awards, she was telling Nora that when she comes to high school, how to decorate her locker. She made a note regarding posters.

The older girls made a show of kissing their dates if they won an award. Robin, as expected, won the Offensive Back Award, and then, not unexpected, the Leadership Award. Kara Lee gave him a big on-the-cheek smack and everyone cheered. Kara Lee puckered Nora a signal to do it too, but she chickened out.

The Most Inspirational Player Award, as always, went to a flyweight who got flattened, practice after practice, and kept coming for more.

There would be a post-function, one of the linemen being a farm boy whose folks had volunteered his barn. Anybody who smoked had to leave and couldn’t come back. Anybody who vomited couldn’t do it where people walked.

Leaving the banquet, the girls could hear the players laughing about the hayloft.

Nora thought he’d drop them off and pick up somebody else, but he said he was ready for bed. He’d had a ton of fun, he told them as they headed toward the car.

She didn’t need a barn for her fantasies, taking his arm like Kara Lee. Did the other girls think it was Robin who’d pinned on her corsage? She hoped so.

As they drove to her house, Robin said that two chickadees beat a sage grouse with a pigeon brain. Nora liked being called a chickadee. Whenever Robin shifted, she’d scoot to make room and then scoot back. She liked his aftershave.

When Robin came around and opened the door, Kara Lee called out, “Remember to kiss her goodnight.”

Walking to her door, she wasn’t brave enough to again take his arm, but when her heels tripped her, she was pleased to use the excuse.

“It was really fun,” she told him on the porch, forgetting she didn’t now need his arm.

Walking into the banquet, her wrist in his elbow had felt so awkward, but coming out, less so. On his other arm, his sister hadn’t cared a hoot about how she was, but Nora was excited when his arm touched the side of her breast.

When he’d given her her goodnight kiss, he didn’t try to pull her against him, but the way it worked out, she liked that she dimpled his sports coat.