Junior Year Box Set

“Not answering her phone,” he grumbled.

I looked outside again and wished I had parked closer to the school. I would be soaked by the time I ran to the Charger. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly as I weighed the benefits of making the dash or waiting for the rain to subside. I was a little worried about my house. While I was sure Angie and Greg wouldn’t let the party get out of hand, that didn’t mean my apartment wouldn’t be packed. If the cheerleaders were left alone, I might not have any t-shirts by the time I got there.

Then a brilliant idea struck me!

“Who wants to go get my car and pull it around?” I asked.

When all their hands shot up, I had second thoughts. The Charger wasn’t a pickup truck. I decided I’d better drive it and ran to the car. I hit the key fob and raced the last few feet, then piled into the front seat, soaking wet. I was contemplating what the water would do to my leather seats when the other three doors opened. The guys had decided to follow me. That was when there was a blood-curdling scream.

Johan, being the oldest, had claimed shotgun. We both looked in the back seat and discovered a very naked Janet Duke, junior cheerleader and the girl who had broken my heart in middle school, trying to cover the critical parts. The other three guys had the back doors open, and the wind and rain were soaking my back seat.

“Get in the damn car!” I ordered them.

“But there’s a naked girl in your back seat,” Milo said, to state the obvious.

“If you don’t get in the car, I’ll leave you!” I yelled at them as I watched my interior get soaked.

The Charger was a four-door, and the back seat was comfortable for three. Jan squeaked when they piled in and found herself between Roc and Derek. If I hadn’t been so pissed about the water in my car, I might have laughed. Poor Roc and Derek looked like they might spontaneously combust from embarrassment.

Johan turned to me, and then back to Jan, and back to me again to give me a head bow.

“Thank you for getting us out of homeschooling and allowing us to learn about life from the plain people.”

‘The plain people’ was what the Mennonites called non-church members. I finally found the humor in it when Milo and Derek couldn’t help but stare with their mouths open. Roc obviously had popped a boner and did everything he could to cover it without drawing attention to his condition, which made it worse. Janet gave me a hard look.

“A little help, David!” she demanded.

For the life of me, I just didn’t understand why Jan would get naked and hide in my car. Okay, I wasn’t that dense, but WTF! I patted the center console between Johan and me.

“You can come up and sit up front,” I offered.

I don’t think Jan realized the show she provided the poor religious boys in the back seat as she quickly wiggled out from between them and then sat beside Johan and me. If anything, she had made it worse, because now she was perched so all the guys had a better view. I was sure they’d all seen naked girls. Roc had described everyone skinny-dipping in the river as they grew up. The difference here was that, besides Pam, Jan could make a good case for being the hottest junior at Lincoln High. Jan looked at Johan.

“Give me your t-shirt!” she ordered.

Johan was such a dumbass. I would have to explain to him that if a girl willingly got naked, and all the guys could see, he shouldn’t end the show.

I started the car.

“Seatbelts,” I reminded the guys. “Jan, sit in Johan’s lap.”

“Shouldn’t she trade off?” Milo asked tentatively.

I just looked at him in the rearview mirror. All I needed was to get Jan started. After what I had heard the Callahan twins had done with her, it wouldn’t be a surprise if she would decide to go too far. I absolutely did not need to get their community pissed at me. It was bad enough I had talked Roc and Zoe into going to public school. That was also why I would take them home instead of to my house for a party.

The ride to the farms was quiet. Only Roc knew me at all, and it had been three or four years since we played Little League together. What they didn’t realize was I was pissed and had pulled a Dawson and gone quiet. Jan had always seemed to do the wrong thing with me. In middle school, she had used me as a pawn to win Justin back. Over the summer, Jan had brought drugs into our group. I suspected that her friend and fellow cheerleader, Ella Keen, had been high when she drowned and had pulled my best friend down with her. This last stunt had me livid.

When we finally dropped off the Bauer brothers, I made her give Johan his shirt back.

“But I’ll be naked,” Jan complained.

“Believe me when I tell you it’ll be much better for everyone if Johan walks in the front door with his shirt on. I don’t need to explain to his parents what he and his little brother saw tonight.”

Jan gave it back to him and then she shivered as we pulled out onto the country road.

“Where are your clothes?” I asked.

“Mona has them.”