Chapter 2

After a month in hell or Hinton High School, Sarah couldn't figure Melissa out.

First of all, that smile continued to be nearly permanently affixed to that cute and beautiful face. One would think with a girl smiling like an idiot, she would be. Melissa may not have been as brilliant as Joe or Amy, but she was smart.

Second, Sarah couldn't figure out why Melissa kept her spirits. Except for Joe and Amy, she had no real friends. And like with Sarah who had also befriended the couple, those two spent far more time in close proximity and closed to anyone else in the world than they participated in any kind of friendly involvement with her neighbor. Melissa sat with classmates at lunch, but they barely acknowledged her or begrudged brief conversations which usually ended with the assholes acting condescending when they left the table. Melissa never seemed to notice.

Thirdly, though they lived next to each other, Melissa never invited Sarah into her house. At first Sarah didn't notice nor care. She kept Melissa back, resisted her attempts at furthering friendship. The Pollyanna schtick bothered the angry teen. But a month of it, her walls became more permeable. She needed someone to be a friend. And when she began venting and not just avoiding the girl with a few harsh words, no one ever listened to her the way Melissa did. Of course the Pollyanna clichés came out, but Sarah actually started finding them charming and endearing and almost irresistible. So when they got off the bus and the conversation hadn't ended, the only way to continue it was to invite Melissa to her house. If she walked with Melissa towards Melissa's house, Melissa would smile and say, "We'll continue later," and disappear inside.

It's true the house was the smallest in the block and set back from the road instead of hovering over it like the rest of the houses. It had a weird aura, kind of forbidding. It seemed to hold all the secrets of all the houses on the block. But nothing about it would have bothered Sarah. She was sure of that. Having someone inside that house besides those belonging to it obviously bothered Melissa.

And last but not least, Melissa revealed her dark side in her art. This cheerful soul drew and painted dark landscapes. "My dreams," Melissa explained to Sarah with a smile. "Got to let them out somehow."

Sarah stood in front of the painting after art class, their final class. Melissa had darted off. Being young, the unfinished painting would never be great, but Sarah found it compelling. Mostly dark and muted reds and browns and greens, it appeared to be a vision in mud of a young girl being punched by ... something. Something malevolent to be sure. Where the fist impacted, deep maroon drops of blood sprayed. Further from the girl, they transformed into rain clouds and poured down on a dog baring its teeth at the girl.

Melissa told Sarah she envied her skills at drawing. Sarah drew well, very realistically, but couldn't paint worth a damn. As soon as she looked at the mixing palette with all those colors, she hadn't a clue. Painted versions of drawings always looked like clowns to Sarah. She hated them. She envied Melissa's colors.

"Hey," said Fat Freddy, the boy with the Melissa infatuation Sarah had witnessed on her first ride to school. He startled Sarah. She recovered and welcomed the surprising greeting. Freddy had to be the shyest boy she ever met. At sixteen, approaching six feet in height and weighing around 200 pounds, his shyness happened to be more noticeable than most.

Melissa turned from the nightmare painting and looked at the nervous young man. "Hey Fred."

"Kind of scary, isn't it."

"Yes. You want me to set you up with Melissa?"

"Hunh?"

"It's obvious."

"I..." His eyes darted around, looking for escape. She took his arm to prevent it and felt the strength.

"You should think better of yourself Freddy. You may be a bit chubby..."

"It's not. I work out. I wrestle."

"You do?"

"Yeah. First string. I ... win a lot."

"I bet you do," Melissa chuckled. "You have practice?"

"Football. Not right now."

"Good. Come on."

Timing couldn't have been better for Freddy to get over his fears. He followed Sarah out front where they met with Melissa. The strawberry blonde greeted them with a smile.

"Hi Freddy."

"Uh ... Hi ... Melissa."

"He's coming with," said Sarah.

"Okay!" giggled Melissa.

The old Buick Century looking to be a century old grumbled to a stop in front of the school. "Get in," smiled Joe in the passenger seat.

"Where are you taking us?" asked Sarah for the others as she slid across the back seat. Melissa followed her and then Freddy.

"You'll see," smiled Amy. "Hey Freddy."

"Uhm, hi."

Amy and Sarah chuckled. Amy guided the rumbling car out of the parking lot.

Beyond school limits, Joe wrestled an old two album set from his backpack and a Sucrets box from under the seat. Its contents placed on the record cover, Joe broke them up. "What's that?' asked Melissa leaning over the seatback.

"Weed," explained Amy.

"Weed?'

"Herb."

"What are you doing with some herb?"

"It's marijuana, Melissa," Joe finally explained.

"Oh."

"It'll make you happy, or in your case, happier," Amy said seductively.

"Sure. Okay."

"Cool," said Sarah.

"Uhm," said Freddy.

Amy asked him, "You want me to drop you off?"

Freddy gulped. "No."

"Cool," said Sarah again.

They smoked one of the joints as they headed out of town. Joe taught the novices how. Sarah had smoked a few times. It made her nervous. She didn't tell Melissa.

Several miles out of town, they drove down a dirt road and stopped near a babbling brook. Melissa continued her giggling as they exited the car.

Sitting along the rocky bank, they smoked the second joint. "Shall we swim?" asked Amy. Without getting a reply, she pulled off her shirt and removed her pants and panties. Her small breasts hung delicately from her narrow torso, needing no bra. Naked, her petite curves looked feminine and youthful. Her brown pubic nest looked surprisingly neat and trimmed.

"Cold," she announced as she entered the stream. Joe, revealing a taut, subtly muscular body and a flaccid narrow penis and hairy balls and abundant pubes soon followed.

"Come on," said Sarah, removing her clothes with quick bravado and jumping into the cold water.

"I will if you stand up," said Melissa. The water fell from Sarah's taut nipples sitting on firm b-cup torpedo heads. Her slim, firm belly led to wet black pubic hair. Her hips curved gracefully from her narrow waist. Her backside had a firm, pronounced curve, leading to healthy medium sized thighs.