Chapter 1

The hallway was packed with kids, a thousand of them, from one end to the other. The stairs were crowded with kids going up and coming down. Pam's locker was down that hall somewhere, she hoped. Twice already that day she got lost, and the books were getting heavy in her arms. She hated the first day of school. She pushed through the crowd. Her locker was on the left side, wasn't it? She had to remember which hallway, the locker number and the combination. She hated it.

She found her locker halfway down the hall, where the crowd of kids was thickest. She wedged between two guys in football jackets and stepped over somebody's backpack. She lost her balance and bumped into a guy and a girl making out against the locker beside hers.

"Hey, watch it," the guy said, glaring at her.

"Sorry," Pam said.

"Hey, Pam, what's up?" the girl said.

Pam looked up. It was Debbie, with her arms around the guy's neck. Her face was flushed.

"Hi, Debbie. What are you doing here?"

"Hey, I'll see you. I gotta get to class," the guy said.

"Ok," Debbie said.

He gave her one last kiss, glanced at Pam and walked off through the crowd. They watched him go. Debbie had a wide grin.

"Wow, he's cute," Pam said. She shifted the books to her left hand and held them up with her knee. She turned the dial on the locker, trying to remember the combination.

"Yeah, I know. His name's Brian. He's a hot kisser, too."

"You move pretty fast, I mean for the first day of school, you know."

The locker didn't open. Pam spun the dial and tried again.

"I have to. Can't let the other girls get all the good guys. I already met three cute guys today."

Debbie leaned against the locker and watched Pam work the combination. Finally, the locker opened.

"Why did you pick Brian?" Pam said. She dumped the books in the locker with the others she collected that day.

"What makes you think I just chose Brian?" Debbie said, still grinning. "Besides, Brian gets my pussy wet. I think I wanna make it with him."

Pam tried not to look at her. She didn't want Debbie to see the jealousy on her face.

"How come you're here? I thought you graduated," Pam said. She closed the locker and spun the dial.

Debbie shrugged. She pulled the piece of gum from between her teeth into a string, wound it around her long fingernail and sucked it back into her mouth.

"I missed too much school, you know, when I was pregnant and all. They made me take it over." She glanced at the other kids as if to see if they heard. "So, like, what's your next class?"

"Math," Pam said.

"I got English. It's downstairs. Really boring, I bet."

"Where's your locker?"

Debbie pointed to the locker beside Pam's.

"Right here. Right next to you."

"Where are all your books?" Pam said.

Debbie shrugged again. "Don't have none."

Pam shook her head. "You're so lucky."

"I know. I always am," Debbie said with a giggle.

The bell rang. Pam jumped. Debbie rolled her eyes.

"Oh shit. I hate that fucking bell," she said.

Pam scrambled to get the schedule from her pocket.

"I'm late. I can't believe I'm late again. I don't even know where my class is."

"Relax. It's not that big a deal," Debbie said and touched her arm. "Look, I gotta get to class. I'll meet you right here, ok, right after school? We can go to my house. I got some stuff to show you."

"Ok," Pam said.

Debbie walked off up the hall, swinging her arms and shaking her hips. The crowd of kids had thinned. Pam looked both ways up the hall, unsure which way to go. She finally found the room on the second floor. The door was closed. She could hear the teacher's voice from inside. She turned the handle and opened the door slowly. He looked right at her.

Pam's heart stopped for a second. Her mouth parted slightly. He was gorgeous.

"You're late," he said. He had a rich, deep voice to go with his dark eyes. He picked up a sheet of paper from his desk. "Are you Pam McCullen?"

"Yeah?" she said in a voice just more than a whisper.

He marked the sheet with his pen. "I was afraid you got lost. That didn't happen, did it?"

"No," Pam said. Every kid in the classroom was looking at her. Their faces were so foreign.

He smiled. "Good. Have a seat. We've already started."

He turned to the chalkboard and continued writing. Pam looked for an empty seat. She found a desk near the back of the room behind a guy with a red jacket. The girl in the desk in the next row smiled at her.

The teacher was writing math stuff on the chalkboard. He had written his name in the upper left corner.

"Mr. Smith," Pam said softly. She watched his back as he wrote. He looked dreamy and his voice was so soothing.

"Hey, your name's Pam McCullen, ain't it?" said the girl in the next row, speaking in a low whisper.

"Yeah, it is."

"I thought so. Your brother's name is Ethan, right?"

"Yeah. How'd you know?"

The girl smiled. "Your brother plays hockey with my brother."

They listened to Mr. Smith. He outlined what they would do for that year, then passed out books and assigned a page of homework. Pam groaned. How could he give them homework on the first day?

Mr. Smith sat at his desk for the last few minutes of class. The rest of the kids talked quietly. Pam leaned across the aisle to the girl in the next desk.

"What's your name?" she said.

"Nancy."

Pam looked at Mr. Smith. "He's cute. I hate having homework, though."

"I know it. Mr. Smith's the coach of the girl's softball team, too."

"Really?" Pam watched him working at his desk and tried to imagine him as a coach. She didn't know anything about softball, though.

The guy with the red jacket in the desk in front of her turned around.

"I heard he was gay," he said.

Nancy sneered. "You wish," she said.

The others sitting around them snickered. Pam smiled, but she had no idea what they were talking about.

"I heard he has a big dick," the girl behind Nancy said.

"Ooo, I'll bet it's real big," the guy in the red jacket said.

"Where'd you hear that?" Nancy said.

The girl behind her lowered her voice.

"My sister's friend. She said she did it with him last year."

"No way," Nancy said.

"Did what?" Pam said.

They all looked at her.

"You know, it. Don't be stupid," the girl behind Nancy said.

Pam blushed and turned away. She didn't care what they said. She still thought Mr. Smith was cute. She was glad she had his class, even if he did assign homework on the first day.

The bell rang. Pam went back to her locker, glad to finally be done with the first day of school. The only thing she had to worry about was that she remembered which books she needed to do her homework.

Debbie was waiting by her locker. She had no books and carried nothing but her purse. She smiled when she saw Pam.

"So what was it like?" Debbie said.

"What was what like?"

"Math, silly."

Pam shrugged. The lock opened the first time she tried the combination. The stack of books had grown to fill more than half the locker. She got her purse and did not bother to put the math book or her binder in.

"It was all right. It was just math, I mean. He gave us homework on the first day."

Debbie sneered. "God. I hate that. Who was he?"

"Who?"

"The teacher."

"Mr. Smith."

"Oh God," Debbie said, rolling her eyes up. "He is like, such a doll. I had him for math last year. He's got this, like, gorgeous ass."

"Yeah, I know," Pam said. She could not look directly at Debbie.

"Look, are you doing anything tonight?"

Pam held up her math book. "Just homework."

"Is it a lot?"

"No, just one page."

"Good. Come on, you can do it at my house," Debbie said. She grabbed Pam by the arm and dragged her down the hall.

Debbie lived only a couple of blocks from the school. They walked past all the kids waiting for buses and rides from their parents. The sun was still bright and warm. The leaves had not yet started to change colors.

Debbie talked of the other girls in school and the guys they were already going with. Pam listened, but couldn't understand why none of the guys asked her to go with them.

They walked up the driveway to Debbie's house.

"My brother's home. That's his car," she said, pointing to the red car in the driveway.

"What's his name?" Pam said. She paused a moment to look in the car. On the passenger seat was an old t-shirt, a baseball glove and a baseball.

"Gary. He works at Stewart Chevrolet, you know, the car dealership?" Debbie said.

"Oh."

"Yeah. He paints cars. That's why his looks so good."

"Oh," Pam said again. She didn't notice. She took another second to look at the paint job and followed Debbie into the house.

The inside was air conditioned and very comfortable. Pam set her math book on a table next to a chair.

"You want a pop or something?" Debbie said. She went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator.

"Yeah, a pop," Pam said.

Debbie bent over with her hands on her knees.

"I got root beer or cherry pop. Which do you want?"

"Root beer," Pam said.

A guy appeared from behind the open refrigerator door. He wore a pair of shorts but no shirt and his chest was damp with sweat. He looked down at Debbie's backside and put his hand right on her butt.

"Hey, Deb," he said.

She squealed and stood upright suddenly. A can of pop dropped from her hand and bounced on the floor.

"Gary. You scared the shit out of me," Debbie shouted and slapped his bare chest.

He grinned. "You wanna fool around?"

He put both hands around Debbie's waist and pushed her back against the counter. His leg forced between her knees. He leaned forward to kiss her, but she turned her head.

"Gary, not now," she said, her hands on his shoulders.

Gary looked up and saw Pam. She smiled briefly. His hands dropped from Debbie's waist.

"Who's your friend?" he said.

He walked through the kitchen in her direction. Pam backed away until she ran into the table. The muscles in his chest and arms rippled and she couldn't keep her eyes off them.