It was a sunny Tuesday afternoon in September. Davey was walking home from school with his friend Gary, and the two of them were eagerly talking about a project they had in mind.
"We could build this treehouse in your backyard," Davey said, excitedly. "I bet your dad wouldn't mind."
"He might," hesitated Gary, "My mom has been after him to have less stuff in the backyard." Gary thought for a minute. "But we could build it in the woods behind my house.”
"That'd be even better,” Davey said. "If we built it a little bit farther back in the woods, you couldn't even see it from your backyard." He grinned. "Yeah, that'd be perfect!"
"That'll be cool!" Gary nodded. "We'll be the only ones in the whole fourth grade with our own tree house, I bet."
The two of them were almost at the end of the block. As they approached the corner, they could see where Barton Street crossed Craig. Craig Street went north and south, but Barton, after crossing, went only about a hundred feet farther, then dead-ended. At the end were the woods, with a trail leading to the other side, where Gary's house was. When they got to the corner, Gary would cut through the woods to his house, and Davey would turn onto Craig Street for the last part of his walk home.
As they approached, Davey looked warily at the second house before the corner, ahead. It was closer to the street than any of the others, with a front porch only a few feet back from the sidewalk. It was an older house, the dark red paint on the wood siding was peeling at the edges, and the front porch was tipped at a slight angle from the rest of the structure. The adjoining garage came right out to the sidewalk, so Davey and Gary couldn't even see whether the garage door was open or closed, as they approached.
Gary saw Davey looking at the house. "Hey, isn't that the house where that Lynda lives?" he asked. "The older girl who's always teasing you?"
Davey blushed. "Yeah," he nodded. "I hope she's not home. I hate going by there." He peered at the porch. "She goes to St. Michael’s, but she gets home before we do. So she and her stupid girl friends are on the porch yelling at me as I go by."
"Well, why don't you just walk on the other side of the street?" Gary shrugged.
"That'd be stupid," Davey rolled his eyes. "Then she'd know I was trying to get away from her." He surveyed the intersection ahead. ”I gotta turn left up here on Craig. If I crossed to the right side of the street, then crossed again to turn left, she'd know I was trying to stay away."
"Well, the thing is," Gary pointed out wisely, "not to let her know it bothers you. If you pretend you don't hear her, she'll get tired of it and stop teasing you."
"Yeah, I guess so,” Davey nodded. "Anyway, she's not out there today."
The two approached the corner. Suddenly, from the porch of the old house, Davey heard the sound of a door squeaking, then slamming. He heard two female voices giggle.
"Oooooh! Look!! There's DAVEY!"
"He's so CUTE!"
"He has the CUTEST little face!"
"And such a CUTE little BUTT! Oooooh! I wanna SQUEEZE his little BUTT!"
Gary nudged Davey. "Just ignore them," he said, under his breath. "Keep walking. Don't even look at them."
Davey did his best, resolutely trying to look straight ahead. The two voices continued.
"Hey DAVEY! We think you're so CUTE!"
"We want to KISS YOU, Davey"
"Hey LOOK at US, Davey!"
Involuntarily Davey looked up. There were Lynda and her friend on the porch, grinning at him. Lynda was tall, even for her age, and very slim. She was wearing a pink sleeveless top and knee-length shorts that made her look even taller and slimmer. She brushed her long brown hair back over her shoulder. "Hi, Davey!" She waved. "Ooooooooh! You look so CUTE!"
"You're such a little CUTIE, Davey!" Lynda's friend was shorter, of average height, with short black hair and narrow glasses. She wore a light blue short-sleeved shirt, and jeans. "We want to KISS you, Davey! Why don't you come up here and let us KISS you?"
Davey faced forward and kept walking. "Don't even look at them!" hissed Gary.
The teasing continued. "Aw, COME ON, Davey! Come up here! We want to PLAY with you, Davey!"
"Don't you want us to KISS you, Davey?"
Davey and Gary resolutely walked on. Just as they were almost to the garage, Davey heard Lynda say:
"Hey DAVEY! You better LOOK AT THIS!"
Davey turned around. He saw Lynda on the porch grinning at him. Then he saw that Lynda's friend was holding up a camera. Her finger moved imperceptibly, before Davey even realized that his picture had been taken.
Lynda laughed. "Hey Davey! I hope you don't mind that ELIZABETH took a PICTURE of you!"
Davey turned away. "I hate them!" he mumbled. "They're always yelling that stuff at me."
Gary nodded. "You can't let them get to you," he said. "Now, you notice that they don't yell at me like that. They ignore me. They did that to me a couple times, but I didn't get all riled up, and pretty soon they just got tired of trying to get me upset. That's what you have to do." He nodded again, knowingly. "Now, I gotta go this way. Are we gonna get together this Saturday to work on the treehouse?"
Davey nodded. "Yeah, for sure. I think I can get ahold of some of my dad's tools. But what are we gonna do for wood?"
"Oh, we can use wood from that old pile of boards out in back of our garage." Gary grinned. "My dad says he's gonna get rid of those boards one of these days, anyway. I guess we'll just be helping him. And we've got nails."
"Sounds like we have everything we need," nodded Davey.
________________________________________
It was the next day, Tuesday. Davey was sitting in front of a computer in the school's Resource Center, finishing up an assignment on dinosaurs. It was the morning study period, and Davey could see that there were still fifteen minutes in the period. He looked around the library--Mrs. Geaves, the librarian was way on the other side of the room, talking on the phone. Davey turned back to the computer, and clicked open his e-mail.
As he looked at his inbox, his heart leaped. There was a new message from Holly!
Holly was the little blonde girl who sat two rows away from Davey in fourth grade homeroom. Her family had moved to town that summer, and she was new in school. She had been kind of quiet and shy, but Davey had recently found himself developing a crush on her. He'd been trying to talk to her every excuse he could find. Recently, he'd e-mailed Holly about a book he'd had at home, that might help her finish an assignment. He'd loaned her the book, but he hadn't been expecting an e-mail back from her already.
Davey clicked on the message and opened it. "hi davey," it said. "thank u 4 loning me the book. i m dun with it. i think u r nice, & i realy like u a lot. can we hang out 2gether sumtime?"
For a second, Davey just sat staring at the screen with a warm happy feeling creeping through him. She liked him! In fact, she really liked him a lot! That's what it said!
He clicked the "Reply" button and typed: "hay holly i m glad u got it dun! yeah, lets hang out! how bout this Sat?"
He clicked "Send," then realized he'd forgotten something. He hit the reply button again and typed: "i realy like u a lot 2 holly!" and sent it.
Going back to the inbox, Davey looked at the next message. It was from Gary. He clicked it open. "hay davey," it said. "did u no that that lynda that took yr pic yesterday is posting it on her webpage? serisly, she has the pic of u from yesterday on her page & others 2!"
For a minute Davey was taken aback. Then he looked at the timestamp on Gary's message. It was from this morning, from just a few minutes ago. Gary must be near a computer. Davey clicked the "Reply" button & typed: "where is her webpage? can u send me a link?" He clicked "Send," and then sat back. He was vaguely uneasy. The idea of a picture of him out there on the Internet, where everyone could see him made him a little nervous. Then he relaxed a bit. After all, what could be so embarrassing about a picture of him? Anyone that knew him already knew who he was. And anyone else wouldn't care.
A new line popped up on the inbox list: "re: pic of u." It was a reply from Gary. Where was he that he could answer so fast? Davey opened the message. "hay davey here is the link CLIK HERE it takes u 2 her hompage & ther is a list on the botom, clik on the 1 that sez my littel frend davey."
Taking a deep breath, Davey clicked on the letters CLIK HERE in the message. There was a second's delay, then the screen turned pink. Little white teddy bears holding heart-shaped balloons appeared in the corners. Glittering lettering appeared on top of the page, "Lynda's Webpage."
Davey quickly looked around the library, then began to scroll down the page. There was a photo of Lynda, dressed in a white sleeveless top, grinning impishly at the camera. It was unpretentiously captioned "me." Scrolling down further, he read the following paragraph:
ABOUT ME
i m 13 yrs old & m a eighth grader at joliet scool. i like swimming &
softball & music. & BOYZ! i wanna meet new frends, so look at my page
& leeve me a comment under the pics.
Scrolling down farther, Davey uncovered a picture of Lynda wearing a pink dress, and a matching pink ribbon in her hair. Her dressed-up appearance could not hide the impishness. It was followed by comments from viewers:
hy lynda u look prety in that dress
ginadoll 8.3.10
ha ha i hav that dress 2!
bichygurl 8.14.10
Next was a picture of her in a light green one-piece swimsuit, sitting by a pool. Davey found himself staring at her long bare legs. He looked at the comments below:
sexay!
bichygirl 8.14.10
Cute legs, honey!
bikerman25 8.17.10
i wanna get between yr leggs baby!
i m mike 8,23.10
Scrolling on he saw more pictures with comments. At the bottom of the page was the directory to other pages, such as "my frends," "me & elizabeth," "me & melissa at the park," and "som boyz i like." at the very bottom of the list was the one he was looking for: "my littel frend davey." Davey hesitated, then clicked on it.
There on the page, over a pink background, was the picture of him that Elizabeth had snapped the day before. He was shown on the sidewalk, turning around, looking blankly up at the camera. Gary was hidden behind him, all but out of sight. The caption read:
this is my littel frend davey ross. he is a 4th grader at joliet school, & livs at 3117 sherman st. he is bashful, but isnt he CUTE?
Below the caption were comments:
he is such a littel cutie! look at that cute face!
ginadoll 9.15.10
awww! i wanna take him home & play with him!
bichygurl 9.15.10
mee 2! he is sech a little sweetie!
arielbabe 9.15.10
hay! i NO him! he is in my class! he is CUTE!
mindy123 9.15.10
Davey looked at the last comment and gulped just a little. He knew there was a Mindy Rogers in his class at Joliet. Was she the "mindy123" of the last comment? He hoped not--he had expected that no one in his class at Joliet had seen Lynda's pages. Oh, well, he thought, there was nothing terrible about the picture anyway. But one thing was puzzling him. He clicked the page closed, and went back to Gary's e-mail, clicked the "Reply" button, and typed: "hay gary, were r u rite now?" He clicked "send" and waited a few seconds. Abruptly the response appeared:
"i m at home i m absent cuz i m sik"
Well, thought Davey, that explained that, anyway. He closed the e-mail window and started packing up his backpack.
________________________________________
At 3:10, Davey was on his way home, down Barton Street, walking by himself. With Gary out sick, he was on his own. Approaching the corner at Craig Street, Davey looked apprehensively at Lynda's house, but he didn't see anyone on the porch. Maybe he'd get by today without any trouble. He kept walking. . .closer to the house. . .right up in front of it. . .past the walkway. . .up to the edge of the garage. . .
Suddenly, out of the garage wheeled Lynda on her bicycle. She stopped right in front of Davey, blocking the sidewalk.
"HI DAVEY!" she smirked at him, looking up and down at him. "Are you HAPPY to SEE ME?"
Instinctively, Davey moved to the right, out toward the street, but Lynda just coasted her bike in front of him. "Are you trying to GET AWAY from me, Davey? You CAN'T GET AWAY from me!"
She was dressed in the same pink sleeveless top as yesterday. But now she had on a pair of short white shorts that showed off the full length of her long slim bare legs, all the way down to the pink flip-flops on her feet.
She saw Davey staring at her legs, and giggled. He looked up at her.
"Do you like my LEGS, Davey? Do you think I have PRETTY LEGS!"
Davey didn't know how to respond. Lynda kept looking at him, amused.
"Hey, Davey," her face suddenly took on a hurt look, "I have a BOO-BOO on my LEG. Wanna SEE my BOO-BOO?" She propped her left leg up against her bike, so that he could see the inside of her thigh. "See, Davey?" She pointed to a small bruise on the soft skin of her inner thigh, about an inch away from the hem of her shorts. "See my BOO-BOO?" She reached out and gripped Davey's arm. "I want you to put a KISS on my BOO-BOO, Davey! PLEEEEEASE?"
Davey looked at where Lynda was pointing on her leg. He wondered how to get out of this. He tried to shake her hand loose from his arm, but her fingers gripped him like steel. "PLEEEEESE, Davey!" she crooned. "KISS my LEG! Make my BOO-BOO go awaaay!" She gripped him tighter. "If you KISS my BOO-BOO, I'll LET you GO!"
He looked around. No one else was there. There was no way out of it. So, taking a deep breath, he pursed his lips, and leaned over. He put his lips on her bare thigh, right on the bruise.
Suddenly, Lynda let go of Davey's arm. At the same moment, he could feel her other leg swing in on the other side of his head. Then he felt her fingers grip the top of his head and force his face in between her legs, right into the middle seam of her shorts. With Lynda's bare legs clamped tightly against his cheeks, he couldn't move, and could barely breathe. Then he could feel Lynda's hand pushing his head closer into her crotch, while her bare thighs started rubbing up and down on the side of his face. Her hand started maneuvering his head up and down, up and down, between her legs. He could hear her groaning delightedly. Through her shorts came a damp, sweaty, musky smell that he didn't recognize. He heard her laugh a long, satisfied laugh.
Then suddenly Lynda spread her legs apart and let go of Davey's head. He pulled back, and instinctively looked around behind him. No one was there; no one had seen him caught in Lynda's legs. Good! But as he turned back, he thought he heard a screen door slam behind him somewhere.
Out of breath, he stared at Lynda. "What did you do?' he accused.
"Oh, DAVEY!" Lynda crooned. "I just wanted to FEEL you rubbing against my LEGS! It felt so GOOD!"
Davey just stared, still gasping for breath. Lynda looked at him, and grinned mischievously. "And you were so CUTE, how you were trying to GET AWAY! That was so FUNNY!"
Davey still didn't know what to say. He stared.
"You can go now," she said simply, and turned her bike around back into the garage.
________________________________________
Looking at his e-mail that night, Davey was glad to see another message from Holly. He opened it and read: "hey davey, i woud LUV to hang out with u satrday! how about the afternoon? can u come 2 my place?"
Davey clicked on "Reply" and typed: "sure! i wanna! wher do u liv?" and sent it.
He looked at his other messages. No word from Gary. He wished he could tell Gary about that encounter with Lynda that afternoon. But that was just too embarrassing! It was so weird! How could he explain it to Gary? Or to his mom and dad? Or anybody? They'd just tell him that he was supposed to ignore that Lynda. After all, she was four years older than he was, and didn't even go to the same school! What did she want with him, anyway? Thoughtfully, Davey scrolled back to Gary's earlier message and clicked the "reply" button. He typed: "if we work on the treehous itl haf 2 be in the AM. cuz i m busy in the afternoon" He sent it.
He stared at the screen for a full minute, looking at Gary's message from the afternoon. Then, resolutely, he clicked the CLIK HERE link in Gary's message. Instantly the screen went to Lynda's title page, complete with balloon holding teddy bears. Davey slowly scrolled down the page, looking at each of Lynda's pictures.
At the bottom of the page, he found the directory and clicked on "me & elizabeth." The page changed to a lacey blue background, and there were pictures of her and her friend. At the top of the page was the description:
this is elizabeth woods, she is my BESTEST FREND EVER!
elizabeth is good at taking pics, & she has a good camra, &
took most of the pics on these pages
Scrolling down, Davey looked at Elizabeth. She was, indeed, the same friend that he had seen previously on Lynda's porch. In the first picture, Elizabeth had on a light green sleeveless top and white shorts. She had the same short black hair that Davey had seen the day before, and the same cat-like narrow black glasses. The next one was entitled "me & elizabeth at the pool" & showed them both sitting on a bench at the pool. Elizabeth was wearing a two-piece swimsuit, yellow with a floral pattern, and Lynda had on her light green one-piece suit with her white shorts pulled up over them.
Davey clicked back to the homepage, and scrolled down to the directory again. This time he looked at the page entitled "me & melissa at the park."
This page featured Lynda and a girl that Davey didn't remember seeing. She was almost as tall as Lynda, but instead of Lynda's lean wiry arms and legs, Melissa's limbs looked strong and sturdy. In her pictures she was wearing a white tank-top and short yellow shorts, and her arms and legs, while by no means fat, were well filled-out. Somehow this all seemed to enhance her looks, especially judging from the comments under the pictures:
WOW! look at those LEGS!
stuntman 6.12.10
nice legs, baby!
danny2u 6.18.10
id nail that bitch anytime!
big tom 21 6.24.10
She's attractive, thought Davey, but I wouldn't want to get into a tussle with her. He grinned to himself, then shifted back to the homepage. Curious, he scrolled once more down to the bottom of the page, and clicked on "som boyz i like."
This page was filled with photos of boys about 14 or 15. Most of them had their shirts off, and were sitting in just their jeans or shorts. Two were sitting on what looked like a bed, with just boxer shorts. The captions read like:
this is nick kosko. he is a ninth grader at maplewood jr hi. i made him take off his shirt 4 me
or:
this is randy farley. he livs at 31551 pierce st, in the blue house. he is a eighth
grader at joliet.
i made randy pose 4 me on my bed in just his littel undies. isnt he cute?
There were responding comments to most of the pictures:
he is SEXXXXY!
pam23 6.12.10
OOOOOH! look at those CUTE litle NIPLES!
slutgurl 7.22.10
that is a NICE BIG PACKAGE in his SHORTS!
tanya95 8.16.10
Occasionally there were a few less enthusiastic comments:
uh-oh! look out lynda! wait til his gf finds out she is gona b MADD!
rachelbeeson 6.2.10
Or:
LYNDA! PLEEEEEZE take me off here! If hailey sees me like this she will KILL me!
Or:
I M SO IMBERASED! PLEEEEEZE LYNDA????? PLEEASE TAKE ME OFF HERE!
randy 6.11.10
Or:
WHO R U? LYNDA U BITCH! i HATE U!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
y r u SHOWING my BOYFREND on the INTRENET in just his UNDERPANTS!
I HATE U 4 EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
robyn.2b 7.12.10
Davey shook his head. He sighed. Lynda certainly had the ability to frustrate people, especially men. He was glad he wasn't one of the victims on this page!
He slit the cursor up to close the site, then hesitated, and clicked on "my littel frend davey." The pink screen popped up. Davey stared. The picture of him had been moved to the left, and now, next to it, was another photo. In it, Davey could see himself, back to the camera, with his head gripped between Lynda's long bare legs, and with her hand gripping the top of his head as she sat on her bike. Someone had sneaked up behind Davey that afternoon while he was in that embarrassing position, and taken that picture!
Under the picture there was a caption:
i made davey KISS me in between my LEGGS!
i RUBBD his face around on my GURL-PARTS
until i CREEMED in my PANTIES!
And there were already some comments:
poor davey! that is so FUNNEEE!
saralady 9.16.10
HEY! i NO him! that looks like DAVEY ROSS! he is in my CLASS at joliet scool! HI DAVEY!
brittanythurk 9.16.10
hay! that IS davey! he is gona b so IMBERASED when he sees this!
ms.emily 9.16.10
next time do it with yr PANTIES OFF! then he will get a MOUTHFUL
bichygurl 9.16.10
A chill went through Davey. He did know Brittany Thurk. She sat four rows away from him in his homeroom. And he was pretty sure that "ms.emily" was Emily Panderaki, who sat on the other side of Brittany. They didn't normally talk to him, but he knew who they were. And now, it looked like they were all checking out his picture. He didn't know how he was going to look at them when he went to school the next day.
________________________________________
Wednesday morning, Davey walked into his homeroom class, just before the bell rang. Most of the other kids were there. He glanced out the corner of his eye at the seats four rows away. Emily and Brittany were there. He suddenly noticed Brittany look up at him. He heard her giggle. He looked the other way and went to his seat. Once sitting, he busied himself with his books for a few minutes, then glanced in the other direction. He saw Holly, sitting in her seat looking at a paper. She looked at him, then looked away quickly. Then she turned and looked at him again and smiled. Davey winked at her. Her smile got bigger, then she winked back.
Davey glanced the other way, at Brittany and Emily. They were busy chattering away about something. Then they both looked over at Davey and started giggling. Brittany grinned at him, put her hand up in front of her face and made a rubbing motion. Then she and Emily both went into a torrent of giggling.
A subdued "ding--ding--ding" from the hallway stopped all the talk. The speaker on the wall came to life. "Good morning. Here are the morning announcements." Davey slumped in his seat and hoped this would all go away soon.
________________________________________
That afternoon, in the Resource Center, Davey sat at the computer again. Once again, with nothing else to do, he decided to check his e-mail.
There was a message from Gary: "davey, did u c ur pic on lyndas page? what hapend?"
Davey thought a minute, then clicked the "Reply" button and typed: "nuthin, it isnt what it lookd like." Then he thought a moment and added, "hey gary, r u still sick?" and clicked "Send."
He sat back and thought. Gary was going to want to know about this, sooner or later. Davey was going to have to do some artful dodging of the subject.
He clicked on Gary's other message and clicked into Lynda's page again, and went to "my littel frend davey." Sure enough, there was the incriminating picture, only now it had accumulated a few more comments under it:
hey davey! it looks like u r givin linda a BLO JOB!
justingreeves 9.17. 11
boy i woudnt mind bein between those legs!
stuntman 9.17.10
Davey couldn't imagine who "stuntman" was, but he'd heard the name Justin Greeves before. Justin was a kid in sixth grade, here at Joliet. Davey had seen him in band. He hoped he wouldn't run into Justin today on the way out of school.
________________________________________
Walking home from school by himself, Davey hoped there wouldn't be a repetition of his experience the day before. But he did hope that he'd see that Lynda. He wanted to tell her how much problem she'd caused him.
During the course of the day, Brittany and Emily had passed him three times in the hall, and each time Brittany had made that rubbing gesture with her hand on her face, which seemed to send the pair into peals of laughter. One of the sixth-grade boys that Davey didn't know had come right up to him in the lunchroom, leaned down, and sniffed at Davey's face, then walked away laughing hysterically. Another boy had looked at Davey and done a "blowing" motion with his mouth and cheeks, seeming to think that was hilarious. The one good thing about it all was that Holly hadn't picked up on any of it. Apparently she hadn't even seen the webpage, and none of her friends had shown it to her. Hopefully it would die down before that happened.
As he walked along Barton, approaching the corner of Craig, Davey peered ahead at Lynda's house. There was nobody on the porch. Good, he thought, if I just don't see her at all, maybe that would be the best thing. Then it could all die down. He got closer, then passed in front of the porch. He thought he saw one of the front window curtains move, then decided he didn't. Geez, I'm jumpy! he thought. He walked past the house, then past the edge of the garage.
Suddenly, Lynda wheeled out in front of him on her bike again, just like the day before. Today she was dressed in a black tee shirt with the word "She-Devil" across the front in red. She was wearing short jean shorts, and flip-flops. "HI, DAVEY!" she almost leered at him.
Davey found his voice. "Hey, Lynda! You hafta take that picture of me off your webpage! All the kids at school are making fun of me!" As he talked, he felt himself getting more indignant. He heard a screen door close in the back of the garage, and saw Elizabeth coming out. He didn't care. "I'm tired of getting made fun of all day!"
Lynda made a mock frown-y face. "POOR DAVEY!" she crooned. Then she put her hand over her mouth in a pretend-shocked expression. "Uh-oh! Do you have a GIRL-FRIEND? I hope your GIRL-FRIEND didn't SEE you in that PICTURE!" She looked at Elizabeth, who had come up next to her. They both grinned.
Davey started to say "No," then thought better of it. Did Lynda know about Holly? How could she? "Well, anyway, you gotta take me off there!" he finished.
Lynda and Elizabeth looked at each other again. Then Lynda said, "Awwww! POOR DAVEY! Okay, I'll take that picture off, on ONE CONDITION!"
"What?"
"You have to PULL UP your SHIRT for us RIGHT NOW!"
"What???"
"You have to SHOW US your BELLY BUTTON!" Elizabeth giggled.
"No!" Davey said, and started to go around. Lynda wheeled her bike out to block him.
"AWWWW! Come on!" Lynda pouted. "We wanna see your little BELLY BUTTON." She glanced down at Davey's stomach and smiled. "I bet it's CUTE!"
Suddenly Davey felt someone come up behind him. He felt two firm hands grip his arms. One of the hands pulled his arms behind his back, and held them firmly. Davey kicked with his feet. A girl's bare leg reached out in front of his legs pinning them motionless. "Hey!" he yelped. "Let me go!"
A girl's voice came from behind him, just above his head, "I GOT you, Davey!" his captor said.
Lynda grinned. "MELISSA is going to HOLD you while I MAKE you SHOW ELIZABETH your BELLY BUTTON." She took the bottom of Davey's tee shirt in her fingers, and pulled it way up, exposing Davey's bare stomach. Then she slipped her other index finger into his jeans and unbuttoned them, then eased them down a ways until they were about five inches below his navel.
"Hey Davey," Melissa said, from behind him, "you don't MIND if we just UNBUTTON YOU a little, do you?"
"Ooooooh!" squealed Lynda. "Look at that little BELLY BUTTON!"
"It's so nice and ROUND!" Elizabeth crooned. "And it's an OUTIE! I like how it just POPS out from his tummy!" She licked her finger with her tongue, then touched Davey's bare navel with her wet finger, caressing it in a circular motion. "It goes AROUND and AROUND. . ."
Davey wiggled and struggled, but he couldn't escape Melissa's grasp.
"We LIKE your BELLY BUTTON, Davey!" Lynda fairly hummed. "We think it's CUTE!" She moved her face right in front of Davey's navel, and blew on it. It tickled, and Davey squirmed. From behind him he heard Melissa: "You have to HOLD STILL FOR US, Davey!"
"I think he's so CUTE when he TRIES to GET AWAY!" chortled Lynda.
Then Elizabeth reached over to a shelf on the wall. Davey hadn't noticed the camera on the shelf, but he saw it now, as Elizabeth grabbed it. She turned it on and looked through the viewfinder at Davey. "Now, be a GOOD BOY and HOLD STILL for me, Davey!"
Lynda reached out and pulled Davey's jeans down even lower, until the elastic on his underpants was showing. At the same time, Davey felt Melissa pulling him back, so his belly was arched out taut in front of him. He could feel Melissa's hand reach down and touch his bare stomach, with her finger right next to his navel.
"MELISSA is going to HOLD YOU, Davey, while ELIZABETH takes a PICTURE of your BELLY BUTTON"
At that moment, he saw Elizabeth's finger move slightly on the camera, and there was a dull flash. He struggled to get away, but Lynda just pulled tighter on the front of his unbuttoned jeans. Melissa's finger probed his navel. There was another flash.
"Just ONE MORE!" and then another flash.
Suddenly, Melissa relaxed her grip on Davey's arm, and let go of his leg. At about the same moment, Lynda let go of his jeans.
Davey was mad. "You. . .you . . .you can't do that!" he sputtered.
"Says who?" grinned Lynda. I can do anything I want!" She reached her finger out and tickled Davey's navel, and chuckled. "Don't forget to pull your pants up, Davey!"
"What are you going to do with those pictures?" Davey demanded of Elizabeth.
"Awww, poor DAVEY!" Elizabeth grinned. "Are you AFRAID, Davey?" She mock-pouted. "Are you afraid we're going to post this on Lynda's WEB-PAGE?"
Lynda reached down and stroked Davey's face with her hand. "Are you AFRAID that we'll SHOW you on the INTERNET?" she crooned. "Are you AFRAID that all your little FRIENDS will see your BELLY BUTTON on the COMPUTER?" She took her hand away, then suddenly shook her head. "Maybe I won't," she said. "Don't worry, Davey!" She shook her head, and turned abruptly back into the garage. The other two girls followed.
That evening Davey looked at Lynda's webpage. Much to his surprise, none of the pictures from that afternoon were there. Even more surprising, the photo of Davey trapped between Lynda's thighs was gone. The only one left was the one of Davey taken from the porch, and that had once again been centered on the page. There were a couple more comments under it, but nothing worse than before.
Turning to his e-mail, Davey was delighted to see a message from Holly. "hi davey!" it said. "i hope u r havin a nice day. i didnt get 2 c u today in scool. i hope i c u 2 moro. i realy need 2 c u 2 moro in scool cuz i need 2 tell u sumthing."
Puzzled, Davey typed: "hi holly i hope evrything is ok, can u giv me a hint about wht u wanna talk about?" and sent it.
As he looked at the rest of his inbox, a reply came popping back from Holly. She must be sitting at her computer.
"i gotta tell u in persen. dont wory, its nuthin bad. can u meet me at the end of lunch period?"
Davey replied: "ok, i will b waitin 4 u by the door 2 the gim. we can go around 2 the resorse center & talk"
The answer came right back: "c u 2moro davey."
________________________________________
"Hi, Davey." Holly came up to Davey, who was standing by the gym doors, as promised. "Thank you for meeting me. Can we go somewhere and talk?"
"Sure," Davey gestured down the hall. "Let's go in the Resource Center. If we sit by the window, Mrs. Geaves won't hear us." He led the way, Holly at his side. She was about the same height as Davey. Her hair was reddish-blonde, and today she had it in a ponytail that bobbed behind her head enticingly. She was wearing a pink short-sleeved blouse, and light blue jeans.
They entered the Resource Center and saw that there were several tables at the back, near the window. Davey led Holly over to the farthest one, and they sat down. He looked at her and smiled. "Okay, Holly, what's up?"
"Well," Holly looked at him, then looked down at the table, "I guess I'm not a very outgoing person," she started. "You know, I just moved here, and I don't really know anybody. I mean, I know some people here in school, sort of, but not really. I don't make friends real easy."
"Yeah," said Davey, trying to be encouraging. "I guess it can be hard when you're new."
"Well, anyway, I don't have a lot of friends," Holly continued. "And I'm not real smart, and I know I'm not real pretty. . ."
Davey's jaw dropped. "You really think that?" he said, without even thinking.
Holly looked at him and smiled gratefully. Davey hadn't meant to say it out loud, but to himself he thought Holly was really pretty. He found himself studying her face. She had those big brown eyes, looking at him like she was asking him for something, and that perfectly proportioned little mouth, like a bow, that broadened out just a little when she smiled.
She was smiling now. "Thank you, Davey," she said, "You're really sweet to say that. I mean, I'm not, like, drop-dead beautiful or anything. Anyway," she continued, "I thought it was really nice how you've been trying to talk to me and all, and especially how you helped me with that book for that one assignment."
Davey shrugged. "No problem," he said. "Glad I could help."
"But, it's like. . ." Holly faltered, "Oh, I don't know how to say this, but. . ." She looked at the table. "Do you have a girlfriend right now, Davey?"
A girlfriend? Whoa! Davey hadn't even thought about that.
"No," he said, hesitantly.
Holly didn't say anything. The silence was awkward.
"Davey," she said, finally, "can I be your girlfriend?"
"Well, um," Davey didn't know how to answer. He thought about all the stuff that Gary would probably say, and he tried to imagine the other kids in his class. Most of the girls in his class didn't have boyfriends yet, and the girls that did had boyfriends in fifth or sixth grades. Then he looked at Holly, looking at him, awkwardly, but still hopefully. He could tell she was feeling more and more embarrassed the longer the hesitation.
"Sure," he heard himself say. "I'd really like for you to be my girlfriend."
Holly smiled shyly. Davey didn't know what to do next. Was he supposed to kiss her? He felt funny about that, and was glad he was in the library, where he had an excuse not to. But he wanted to do something. So he reached over and took her hand. He felt her small warm fingers reach through his. He gave her hand a little squeeze and smiled at her. She smiled back. He knew that this was what he really did want to do.
Out in the hall the bell rang. Holly looked up. "Time for me to go to math," she said apologetically. "Will you walk with me to my class, Davey?"
"Sure," said Davey, and as the two headed toward the library exit.
As they left the library, they passed two girls from sixth grade. Davey didn't know them, but he knew they were sixth-graders. Both of them looked at him and grinned.
"Hi, Davey!" one of them crooned. She pointed her index finger at Davey's stomach and wiggled her finger. She and her friend both giggled, then they went on.
Holly looked at Davey, puzzled. "That was weird! What were they doing?" she asked.
"I don't know," Davey mumbled. But he suspected. He glanced at Holly. She evidently didn't think anything of it. She took his hand.
The two walked hand in hand through the hallway toward Holly's next classroom. A couple of students looked at them, a little surprised, but Davey didn't care. In fact, he kind of found himself enjoying the attention. After all, her he was, walking with a good-looking girl.
They got to Holly's class, and she turned to him. "I'll see you later, Davey," she said. "Can I see you for a minute right after school?"
"Yeah, for sure!" Davey wanted to see her again. "How about meeting me out by the door next to the office," he said. "I'll wait right outside for you."
"Okay, Davey! See you then!" and he felt Holly squeeze his hand gently as she let it go. He watched her turn and walk into her classroom.
As he turned to go to his science class, he felt a hand rubbing across his belly. He looked up, and saw another girl from sixth grade grinning at him, as she stroked his belly. He felt her finger poke him, probing his navel through his shirt. Then he heard a giggle, and the hand went away.
Uh-oh! he thought, Lynda must have posted those pictures! Holly better not see them!
________________________________________
As Davey walked home with Gary down Barton Street, he found himself thinking about Holly, about her meeting him after school by the door, and how, when no one was looking, she'd stood up on tiptoe and given him a little kiss on the cheek, right before she left. He was surprised that she'd done that, and even more surprised to find that he liked it.
Gary was going on, "And the way I figure it, if we can build the floor on Saturday, we can put up the rails next Saturday, then it'll be all done."
"Yeah, cool." Davey assented thoughtfully.
"Hey, Davey!" Gary suddenly looked over at him a little indignantly. "Did you hear anything I just said?"
"Yea, sure." Davey nodded absently.
"Did not!" Gary responded. "You're hardly even listening to me! You haven't said five words since we left school! What are you thinking about, Davey?"
"Oh, nothing," responded Davey quietly.
"Yeah, something!' Gary insisted. "And I bet I know what it is! Are thinking about that girl at school? That Holly?"
"No," Davey sounded unconvincing.
"You are so thinking about her." Gary declared, grinning. "Is she your girlfriend?"
Davey started to deny this, then stopped. After all, so what if she was his girlfriend? What was so bad about that? And he did really like Holly, and it would seem like a betrayal to her if he denied it--almost as though he were embarrassed of her.
"Yeah, Gary," he said decisively, "Her and me are going together." He paused and said, "Is that so bad?"
Gary was about to respond, then stopped for a minute. "I guess not," he mused. "After all, it's not like she's going to make you play with dolls or anything. And that Holly is kind of cute." He grinned.
"Yeah, she sure is," nodded Davey.
Gary laughed. "Brother, you've got it bad!" He looked at Davey. "Don't worry about it, Davey. In a way I think it's kind of cool. After all, a lot of those big tough guys on TV have girlfriends." He jabbed Davey. "Now you're just like one of them!"
"Yeah, I guess so," Davey nodded. Then he realized that they were almost at the corner of Barton and Craig. He looked up at Lynda's house. No one was on the porch. He couldn't see whether the garage was closed, but he hoped it was. He and Gary kept walking. No one came out of the house, and when they reached the garage, the door was pulled down.
Gary suddenly thought, "Hey Davey, are we still going to work on the treehouse this Saturday?"
"Well, yeah!"
"Okay, I was just checking."
"Checking about what?"
"About whether you and Holly were going to hang out on Saturday." By now they were at the corner.
"Not until afternoon." Davey nodded. Holly has some stuff her mom makes her do at home on Saturday morning. I told her one o'clock."
Gary nodded. "That'll work," he said. "I have to go somewhere with my dad at one."
"Then we'll have all morning," Davey observed.
"Yeah," Gary nodded, then turned toward the path through Barton Woods. He turned. "See ya tomorrow, Davey!" he waved.
________________________________________
Once at home, Davey immediately headed for his bedroom. Throwing his backpack down on his bed, he went to his desk and sat down at his computer. He went to Linda's webpage, and clicked on the "my littel frend davey" button. The screen changed instantly to pink, and there was the original photo of Davey, with the same comments underneath. He scrolled down, and saw the new pictures, and a chill went down his back.
There he was, in Lynda's garage. He could see himself, and a big girl behind him--he knew it was Melissa, even though he couldn't see her face--holding his arms pinned firmly behind his back. He could tell that he was struggling frantically. His head was leaned back, eyes were open wide, and his mouth was hanging open foolishly. His shirt had been pulled up, and his belly was exposed, clearly visible. Melissa's right arm was reaching down in front of him, her index finger touching a spot on his stomach right next to his navel. The caption read:
melissa HOLDING DAVEY wile i make him SHOW his BELLY BUTON m
Scrolling down was another picture, closer up, showing his navel in more detail. In this picture, a faint glistening was visible on the ridge of his navel, from where Elizabeth had wet her finger and rubbed her saliva on his skin. At the bottom of the picture, he could see Lynda's long finger sticking into the top of his unbuttoned jeans, pulling them down. The elastic of his underpants was exposed, and a glimpse of the red underwear fabric was just visible. The caption read:
me PULLING DOWN DAVEYS PANTS so i can LOOK at his BELLY BUTON
Underneath the pictures were the inevitable comments:
cute bely buton davey!
amanda4u 9.18.10
i wanna TIKKLE it!
tanyatiger 9.18.10
meee 2! he is so CUTE!
haileystorm 9.18.10
hay yeah! that is DAVEY ROSS, from my CLASS! having his PANTS TOOKEN OFF!
mindy123 9.18.10
HAY DAVEY! we LIKE yr BELLYBUTTON!
brittanythurk 9.16.10
HEY DAVEY! u hafta SHOW US yr BELLY BUTTON tomorow!
ms.emily 9.16.10
Hi Davey, its me, Sara, from your 4th period English class. Hey Davey, its too bad
all these girls are trying to make you embarrased about showing your belly button.
Davey, you shoudnt be ashamed of your belly button. I think you have a very nice
belly button. I always wondered what your belly button looked like, Davey, and now
I got a chance to see it. I like how it goes round and round, and how that part in the
middle just sort of sticks out a little bit. Will you let me touch your belly button
sometime, Davey?
saramorgan 9.16.10
HEY DAVEY! i like the LITTEL RED UNDIES!!!!! what collor u gona wear 2 moro davey?
lindsaywilliams 9.16.10
Davey could feel his heart sinking. He thought about the two girls near the library door. Then he started thinking about Brittany and Emily, and how he would react when he saw them in class the next day. And about the other classmates who hadn't left comments but who had seen the pictures. He scrolled to the bottom of the page, where a counter read: "hits: 254." So 254 people had seen him like this! Some of them had to be other kids from Joliet. Had Holly seen it yet? Or heard about it? It was only a matter of time. He re-read the note from Sara. It was intended to be kind, but somehow it made him feel more nervous than the others. In a daze, he clicked out of the page.
Looking at the rest of his e-mail, he saw a message from Holly. He opened it. "hi davey," it said. "how was the rest of yr day? wen i got home i had 2 go with my mom 2 get new shoes, it was borring & i jest got bak. i was thinkin about u all afternoon!"
Davey grinned. She'd been thinking about him! Well, hadn't he been thinking about her too, for a good part of the afternoon? He clicked "Reply" and typed: "yeh i ben thinkin about u 2, sory u had a boring afternoon, we will hav fun hangin out this sat. afternoon, i cant wait," and sent it. He sat back and thought for a minute. Yeah, he thought, Saturday is going to be a good day. I can work on that treehouse in the morning with Gary, and then spend the afternoon with Holly--I'll have to think about what we can do that she'll like. Then he thought, I just hope she doesn't come across Lynda's page--I look like such a dork on there! And those comments! Those are so embarrassing!
________________________________________
The next morning at school, Davey waited outside the homeroom classroom. He wanted to be there before Holly got there, so he could greet her before class started. He'd been thinking about getting together with her on Saturday, and was wondering what sort of thing she'd like to do.
Suddenly, a high-pitched squeal pulled him out of his reverie. He turned, and saw Emily and Brittany coming toward the door. "Hi, Davey!" they giggled. "We saw you on the Internet yesterday!"
"You looked so cute!" chortled Brittany. "We like your belly button, Davey!" And she reached over and poked at his stomach with her forefinger. "You looked so helpless with that girl holding you, Davey!"
"And we liked your little undies, too!" added Emily. "What color undies do you have on today, Davey?"
Davey didn't respond. He started edging away from the door, expecting them to go on into class. But they stood there and spoke louder.
"You had on your little red underpants yesterday, Davey!" Emily said, raising her voice so that several other students looked over. "We saw them!"
Brittany joined in, "You have to tell us what color undies you have on right now, Davey. Or later on we'll look."
At that moment Davey saw Holly coming down the hall. He knew he had to end this conversation right away.
"Blue," he said shortly, then went on into the classroom, hearing another round of giggling behind him.
________________________________________
Surprisingly, that was all that Davey heard about it that day. Holly had smiled nicely at him in homeroom, her hair bouncing a little as she nodded. She seemed prettier than ever today, almost as though her shyness was beginning to melt into a quiet but happy playfulness. Davey liked that. He thought, I'm lucky to be her boyfriend.
He had seen her at lunchtime, and again at the end of school. Each time they had talked a little, exchanging stories about their classes, and talking about activities that were coming up. Holly had surprised Davey by showing interest in the treehouse project.
"Can I see it, Davey? Can you take me there tomorrow?"
"I guess," Davey hesitated. "It won't be finished. We're just building the floor tomorrow."
"I don't care. I just want to see what you and your friend Gary are doing. It sounds exciting," she had looked up at the ceiling, "building something that big! I know I could never do it."
Davey smiled. "Yeah, it is a big project. I guess I couldn't do it by myself either. I'm glad me and Gary are working on it."
"I can't wait to see it, Davey! Where are you building it?"
"In Gary's backyard. His dad has a lot of scrap wood in the back that we can use, and there's this big old tree in the woods that's perfect."
"Where's the woods?"
"Do you know where Barton Woods is?" Davey remembered that Holly had just moved to town. "If you go down Barton Street to where it dead-ends, just past Craig Street, there's this trail through the woods. If you follow that trail all the way out to the other side, it comes out near Hubbard Street. Gary lives on Hubbard, and his backyard is right by the woods."
Holly looked thoughtful. "I live just over on Venice Street, not too far from Craig. Maybe you can show me on Saturday. Will you come over and get me, Davey?" she looked at him hopefully. "I'll wait for you.
"
"Sure," Davey agreed. "I should be there around one o'clock."
________________________________________
It was a sunny Saturday morning. As Davey strolled down Sherman Street carrying a toolbox, his heart felt hopeful. He'd spend the morning on that treehouse, then go back and get Holly. It was going to be great! Nothing could ruin this day for him!
Turning the corner, he walked up Craig Street toward Barton Street. As he got close to Barton, he glanced over warily in the direction of Lynda's house. At least he didn't have to go in front of that place. Looking across the intersection at the front porch, he thought he saw a figure watching him. It looked a little like that Melissa, the one that had been holding him, the one who seemed to be the muscle-girl of the bunch. He couldn't tell if she'd seen him or not--he was too far away. He saw her looking out over the street, then she turned and went back into the house.
Davey got to the corner and turned the other way on Barton, to where it dead-ended. At that point, a trail through the woods started. It was only a dirt path, about a foot wide in some places. Davey had followed this path to Gary's house a number of times before. He knew that it would sometimes get muddy after a hard rain. He was glad now that it hadn't rained in the last week.
He reached a small clearing, about halfway through the woods. Here there were a number of fairly mature oak trees surrounding a grassless circle. Today Davey noticed that one of the trees had a wooden crate sitting on the ground, next to its trunk. It was the kind of crate used by grocery stores for vegetables. He shrugged--this trail has all kinds of junk laying around on it, he thought.
Proceeding for another five minutes, he suddenly saw sunlight ahead of him. Here the trail came out of the woods, and emerged onto a continuation of Barton Street. Directly ahead of him was the corner of Barton and Hubbard. And on the near side of the intersection, on the right was the big house with the dark red siding, where Gary lived.
As Davey came out of the woods, he saw Gary, who waved.
"Hi Davey! You got the tools?"
"Yeah," Davey held up the toolbox. "My dad says I can leave them here as long as we're working on this."
"Perfect!" Gary nodded approvingly. "Then you don't have to lug them back and forth." He tilted his head back toward the woods. "Let's get to work."
________________________________________
Three hours later, the two boys were ready to call it a day. They had succeeded in building a ladder up the side of the tree, had framed the bottom, and had gotten the planking in for the floor.
"We can work on this some more next week," they agreed. Davey packed the tools back into the toolbox, and handed it to Gary to put inside the house.
"Hey Davey, next week, we gotta put up the sides, and figure out how we're gonna put a roof on it."
"We don't have to have a roof," Davey pointed out.
"But it would be way cool if we did," Gary persisted. "All we have to do is put some two-by-fours up in the corners, and we could put a roof on that. It wouldn't have to be real heavy or anything."
"Let's decide that once we get the walls up," Davey said, and he turned to go. "See ya in school, Gary!" he waved.
Gary waved back, "See ya, Davey!"
Davey headed for the trail. He figured he would have just enough time to get over to Holly's house and pick her up and then bring her back here. He was looking forward to seeing Holly. Seeing her at school was okay, but it seemed like she always had to run off to a class. Today they would have the whole afternoon.
Davey sauntered along the trail with pleasant thoughts in his head. It was a nice afternoon, sunny but not too hot, with just a little bit of a breeze to keep the air moving. The leaves on the trees were just starting to turn colors, and every once in awhile one of them would come floating down from the treetops and land on the ground near the trail. The breeze made a gentle whooshing sound as it glided through the branches, a sound which made a background for the friendly chirping of birds in the trees above.
As Davey approached the clearing halfway along, he saw the big oak trees. He thought for a moment he saw something white flicker along the side of one of them, but when he stared he didn't see it anymore. Oh, well, he thought. Probably just something blowing in the wind.
He went ahead into the clearing. As he did, a figure emerged from behind one of the oak trees.
"Hi, Davey!!!!"
Lynda!
Part II coming soon.
