Chapter 15: Building A Float

We fell into our school routine through the fall. Becky decided I was dirt, and, except for when she had to, she stopped talking to me. Kristina seemed to work through her guilt and anger, and was pretty much back to her old self again. Molly was skipping school with some regularity, and on the days she did show up, she was looking paler and thinner than ever. I noticed that she had taken to wearing much heavier makeup, perhaps to try to cover the dark circles that were forming under her eyes. I had heard, through the school grapevine, that the cheerleading coach had tried to intervene on her behalf, even going so far as to call her parents, but it didn't seem to help much. I knew that Josh was very worried about her, too, but she wasn't listening to him any more than she cared about what Mrs. Halliburton, the cheerleading coach, had to say to her.

Homecoming was scheduled for the first weekend in October. A couple of weeks before that, a committee of students from each class, with faculty advisers, came up with float designs. The locations where these floats were to be constructed were supposed to be a secret, so that there would be no sabotage raids between the freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. The Junior Class float was going to be built inside a big old barn on some land owned by Shayna Gallagher's parents, located just a couple of miles out of town. The Gallaghers also provided a hay wagon for the float, and construction time was scheduled for every weekday night for whoever could come. It was a fun diversion to go over there and shape chicken wire over the wood framing, and to tie colored crepe paper into the wire. Because of practice schedules and homework, I wasn't able to go over there more than a couple of times the first week, but there were usually about twenty or thirty kids and adults there every night.

On Thursday, I was just sitting down for dinner with my family, anxious to be done so I could run over, pick up Jake, and head out to the barn. Both my mom and my dad were amused, watching me shovel food into my mouth in such a hurry. My younger brother Stephen was just picking at his food, acting distracted.

As I forced down that last mouthful, I dropped my silverware and asked, "May I be excused?"

Stephen piped up right after me, "Me, too, please?"

"All right," said my mom with a small laugh. "Go, before you explode." I ran upstairs to change my clothes. I was pulling on my jeans when Stephen knocked on my door, and opened it.

"Come on in," I said as I tucked in my shirt. "What's up?"

"Sean, I... uh, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, pal," I replied. "What's bothering you?"

He had his head down, and one foot was tapping.

"Ah, never mind," he said uncomfortably, and he turned to leave.

I took two steps over to him and grabbed his arm and turned him back around to face me.

"Hold it there, Stephen. What's going on? I know it's something you don't want the parents to find out about, right?"

"Yeah, well, right," he reluctantly agreed.

"So talk to me."

He sighed. "I... well, I..."

I sat down on my bed and folded my arms across my chest.

"I'm not going anywhere until you spit it out, buddy," I said.

"All right, all right. It's just that I don't know... what I mean is... Sean, if somebody says they're giving somebody head, what do they mean?"

No wonder he doesn't want to talk to Mom or Dad. "Well, it means oral sex. They're sucking cock. Why? Who's giving head?"

"It's Tara. You know, Jaimie's sister? She told me she wants to do that to me, and I didn't know what she meant."

"Tara? I guess it doesn't really surprise me," I said.

"Yeah," said Stephen as he pulled out my desk chair and sat down. "She's kind of a wild kid, you know? My friend Tommy claims he fucked her. I don't know if that's true, but I know she's done some stuff."

"What do you mean, done some stuff? Like drugs? Or like sex stuff?"

"Well, maybe both. Like, I know she was, uh, like playing show-and- tell awhile ago."

"Show-and-tell?"

"Yeah, you know at that picnic and party a few weeks ago? With the baseball game in their back yard, in the field by the woods? Well, Tara took a bunch of us back into the woods there, me and Tommy and Carlos and Richie and maybe a couple of others, and she told us that if we all took our clothes off, she would, too. So we did it. And so did she. And she was laying down, and spreading her legs, and letting us look at her, and everything. And we were all kind of kneeling around her, looking at her, and Carlos reached over and touched her boob, and she kind of closed her eyes, and licked her lips, and we were all getting boners, you know? And she reached out and just touched the end of Carlos's prick with her fingers after he started playing with her. I think if they had been alone, a lot more would have happened, but we heard some little kids shuffling through the leaves close by, so we all scrambled to get dressed again."

"Wow," I said. "That's weird."

"And later, after dark, Tara and Carlos and Richie kind of disappeared for awhile. I think they went back into the woods, but I don't really know for sure. Anyway, at school the other day, she told me she might give me head. I didn't want to ask Tommy or Richie or Carlos what it meant. I didn't want to sound stupid, you know?"

I nodded. Nobody wants to sound stupid in front of their friends.

He continued, "So I said, 'Sure, anytime, ' and she said I should call her and meet her after school. She said that maybe we could do some homework together, or something. But I don't think she really was talking about school homework." He stood up. "Now I know what I'm gonna call her for, at least. Thanks, Sean."

"Hold on there, pardner," I said. "Just because she's kind of offered to suck you off, doesn't necessarily mean you should be going for it. I mean, yeah, it feels good and all, but what about the risks? Think about this for awhile, Stephen. It doesn't sound like you want to be caught up in being Tara's boyfriend, especially if she's out there experimenting a lot."

"Well..."

"Look, I'm just saying that she might be reading more into this offer of hers than you are." I grabbed my shoes and started putting them on. "And even if she isn't, it sure sounds to me like there are a whole shitload of issues tied to her, and maybe you don't want to get caught up in all that. So just think about it, okay?"

"Yeah, you may be right," he admitted. "Thanks, Sean."

"No problem, little brother. Take it from me, dealing with girls is a minefield. You've got to be real careful. Slow and steady, or you just might find something blowing up in your face. And sometimes getting your rocks off just isn't worth the price. Understand?"

"Got it. Thanks." He walked out of the room a lot happier than he walked in. I wasn't sure I had helped him much, but I hoped he would pass on Tara's offer, and wait for something better to come along.

I shook my head at myself. Here I was, giving advice to my little brother, and my own love life was in shambles. Why should he listen to me?

I finished tying my shoes, ran downstairs, grabbed the keys from my mom's outstretched hand, and ran out to her car.

When Jake and I got to the barn, I was surprised at the progress that had been made on the float since the last time I had seen it. The wooden supports were all in place, and most of the chicken wire was stapled up and shaped. There were about fifteen kids working on tying crepe paper around the back of the float, while others were snipping wire. The teams playing the homecoming game were us, the Bears, against the Dover Hornets, and our float design was supposed to be a giant bear crushing a scared hornet in its paws, so there was a lot of smaller work to be done with wire and wood, shaping the figures. A couple of the dads were looking over a set of drawings, calling out measurements to kids with saws. Tiny was helping with carrying lumber, picking up impressive amounts of two-by-fours at once, and Jake walked over to give him a hand. There were a couple of picnic tables set up in a corner, away from the dust and commotion, and the remains of two pizzas were still lying out. There was also a big old refrigerator by the tables, and Kristina was over there, getting out a couple of cans of pop out of the refrigerator.

I walked over toward her, and reached for the door, just as she was closing it.

"Wait a second," I said, as I reached in and grabbed a Coke.

"Who did you come here with?" I asked, glancing at the two cans in her hand.

"Oh, this is for Tessa," she said with a smile. "I caught a ride with her and Austin." She pointed back toward the float. I saw them then, working with the crepe paper.

"Is that where you're working, too?" I asked.

She blushed just a little. "Yes," she said quietly.

I knew where I wanted to work. "Is there room for one more?" I asked.

She glanced quickly at me as we strolled toward the float. "Maybe," she replied with a smile.

She handed Tessa one of the cans, and scrambled up on top of the flatbed wagon. She bent over to pick up a roll of green crepe paper, and then looked over to me questioningly, a slight grin on her face.

I took the hint, and followed her up to work on tying paper to one of the forms.

Two hours later, my hands were dyed blue and green from the paper, and my fingers were cramping from shoving bits of crepe through the openings in the wire and tying them off. I stood and stretched my aching back muscles, and stopped, looking around in surprise.

It was quiet in the barn. Most of the kids had already left, and most of the ones still there were manning brooms to clean up the area a little. I hopped down from the wagon, and reached up to give Kristina a hand as she clambered down. Tessa and Austin were just finishing up the section they had been working on, and Jake and Tiny were sitting at one of the picnic tables, polishing off the last of the cold pizza. I walked over toward them, opened the fridge, and took out two cans of soda.

"Hey, Sean, if you're going to stay here and work some more, I think I'll catch a ride home with Tiny," said Jake.

"Yeah, that's fine," I said. "Maybe Kristina and I will help Tessa and Austin finish up that back part."

Jake smirked just a little, but he tried to keep a straight face. "Yeah, okay, you work on that with Kristina."

Tiny laughed out loud, and they both stood. They had to sit on opposite sides of the table, or it would have tipped over. Even at that, the table rocked when they both stood up. I could imagine it groaning in relief, after having those two big bodies pressing down on it.

I walked back over and handed a can to Kristina. We were content to stand there, watching Tessa and Austin as they tied the last few pieces of paper on. Tessa stood back and eyed their work critically.

"It looks like it could use just a little more over there, on that side," she said, pointing. "See?"

Austin got up off his knees and moved back to where Tessa was standing, draping an arm casually around her shoulder. He looked to where she was pointing.