The afternoon school bell clanged promptly at 3:00, shattering the relative stillness of the warm spring day. Almost immediately, a horde of happy kids gushed from their classrooms in a mad dash for the buses. It was Friday, and thoughts of homework and getting up early could be shelved for yet another weekend. Better yet, summer vacation was just around the corner, and the prevailing mood among the pupils was decidedly upbeat.
Jill swung her notebook carelessly as she skipped toward her bus, humming absent-mindedly while thinking about her plans for the weekend. She wasn't old enough to date yet, but she was finding it increasingly easy--and more exciting--to manage a few minutes alone with a particularly appealing girl at the usual haunts. Still only sixteen, she was learning fast and enjoying every minute of it.
Maybe Mitch would call this afternoon and ask her to go roller skating with the gang tonight. Or maybe Brad would try to get a group together to go swimming at the Y. Jill liked girls and boys, and they were beginning to return her interest with enthusiasm.
Playfully jostling ahead of a couple of classmates, she laughed and jumped into the bus at a single bound. Most of the seats in the back were taken, so she selected an aisle seat a few rows behind the driver and sat down. She looked around quickly but didn't see any of her close friends in the immediate vicinity. Her eyes rested briefly on Kelly what's-her-name seated across the aisle, but she had her nose stuck in an arithmetic book and didn't notice her.
Kelly was a quiet sort. her family had moved into the house down the street not too long ago, and she'd kept pretty much to herself ever since. They knew each other, of course, but she was MUCH younger--she'd just turned fifteen and was a grade behind Jill. Practically a baby despite her very large bust. Still, she was kind of cute, even if a little too shy to suit her tastes. She turned her thoughts elsewhere as the driver shut the door and put the bus noisily into first gear. They began the slow and lumbering ride home.
Soothed by the steady rhythm of the tires and the sputtering engine, Jill put her head back against the seat and closed her eyes. She brought one leg across her knee and let her foot dangle in the aisle. As her muscles relaxed, her shoe gradually slipped past her heel and finally fell away from her foot. She instinctively extended her toes to keep the shoe from falling completely off and clattering to the floor, but for a brief instant it hung precariously from her big toe. Then she jiggled her foot a bit, working the shoe back to a more stable perch, though it was still suspended at a right angle to her foot. Without really thinking about it she began to rock her foot up and down as girls are wont to do, causing the shoe to rock right along in a steady swinging motion.
All of a sudden Jill began to get a funny feeling, as if someone were watching her. She cracked her eyelids a bit and looked across the aisle at Kelly. she had her head down and was frowning as if totally immersed in her arithmetic lesson. However, as Jill looked on, she noticed that every few seconds the girl would surreptitiously glance in the direction of her foot and then quickly look down again. she seemed fascinated with something in the aisle, whether it was her foot or her shoe.
There was nothing fancy about the shoe. She was wearing plain ordinary flats, the kind that were easy to get into and easy to kick off. They were low cut in the traditional style and the fronts barely covered her toes when they were all the way on. About the only complaint she had about them was that sometimes they rubbed against her heels when she wasn't wearing socks, but other than that they were pretty comfortable. No, the shoes weren't that great an attraction.
She wasn't wearing socks now. It'd been unseasonably warm the past few days, so she'd taken to slipping her bare feet into her flats just before leaving for school.
Maybe it was her legs. She was just now beginning to acquire a decent tan, and her ankles were bound to be showing a curvaceous turn by this time. After all, she was sixteen.
Her foot kept up its monotonous rocking while the dangling shoe swung to and fro. Jill thought that Kelly’s sidelong glances were beginning to grow longer and longer in duration, as if she hated to tear her eyes away from an object of morbid fascination.
The bus hit a bump while rounding a curve, just as her shoe was on the upswing. She lunged with her toes, but the shoe had already spun away and dropped with a thud to the floor. Her first impulse was to lean over and retrieve the errant item, but a quick look at Kelly’s face stopped her in her tracks.
She was no longer pretending to be engrossed in her reading. Seemingly hypnotized, her gaze was fixed on Jill's now bare foot protruding into the aisle, and she sat stock-still except for the tip of her tongue running anxiously over dry lips. So it's my feet! Jill thought. She smiled slyly. Let's see what else I can do!
Coyly, she rotated her foot so that the bare sole was pointed squarely in the girl’s direction, then she lazily spread her toes wide and closed them again. Jill thought she was going to fall out of her seat. her eyes grew and grew until they seemed as big as saucers, and her arithmetic book lay forgotten in her lap.
She then swung her foot over and braced her toes against the armrest of the seat in front of her, positioning her foot so that the sole continued to be exposed to the girl’s unblinking gaze. She decided to flush her out there and then to see what would happen. She opened her eyes wide and looked at her openly, but she didn't seem to notice at first. she kept staring at the small bare foot for long seconds until finally she happened to glance up to see the girl coolly appraising her. she immediately looked away, her face burning bright crimson in her acute embarrassment at having been caught in the act. Not knowing what to do or say, she looked out the window at nothing in particular the rest of the way home, relieved that no one else seemed to have noticed this private little mini-drama.
They both got off the bus at the same stop, as they did every day. Kelly hurried off down the sidewalk, eager to escape the source of her mortification. Jill had long since retrieved her shoe, and she called to the girl as the bus went lumbering down the street.
"Wait a minute!"
Kelly stopped and turned around hesitantly.
"I want to talk to you a second," she yelled.
"Can't. I've got to get home."
"Well, you know where I live, don't you?"
She nodded.
"Come on over in a few minutes, then. I've got something I want to show you." Without waiting for an answer, she turned on her heel and scampered home.
Jill poured herself a glass of milk and filched a few lady- fingers from the cookie jar. Finishing her snack, she flipped off the kitchen light, went to her bedroom and changed clothes, choosing a T-shirt with a typically gaudy design and a pair of tight short-shorts. She kicked her shoes off in the direction of the open closet and smiled faintly at the memory of her neighbor's recent discomfiture. That was certainly a strange reaction she had shown. She didn't know if he'd take her up on her invitation or not, but she hoped her curiosity would get the better of her. She had started getting the germ of an idea on the bus while thinking about Kelly’s apparent attraction to her feet, and she had a spritely feeling that was laced with a spirit of high adventure.
The doorbell rang. Barefoot, she padded down the stairs and pulled the front door open. Kelly stood there, her dark eyes flitting nervously in all directions save in that of the girl's eyes as she drew aimless circles with the toe of her shoe. she hadn't changed clothes; maybe she hadn't even gone home yet, too uptight to explain where she was going and why.
"Hi, Kelly. Come on in."
She noticed with pleasure that the girl stole a few furtive glances at her bare feet as she opened the door wide and stepped aside to let her enter. She wasn't used to being admired in quite such a fashion, but she nevertheless found her attention flattering.
The girl mumbled a few words of greeting and stood there dumbly, not knowing what to do or say.
"Oh, relax, I'm not going to bite you. Want a cookie?"
"Sure. Thanks."
She led her into the kitchen and fixed her a snack similar to hers. she thawed visibly as she ate. She urged her on with small talk about school, the Y and the like, and gradually she began to come out of her shell somewhat.
"These cookies are great," she mumbled, wiping the crumbs from her mouth. "Thanks for asking me over."
Then she frowned as if remembering something. "But didn't you say you wanted to show me something over here?"
"That's right, I did." She rinsed out her glass and asked that she follow her upstairs.
"Gee, I don't know if I should. I've always been told never to go into someone's house unless the parents are home. We might get caught."
"Don't be such a scaredy cat," she sniffed. "My dad's out of town and my mom won't be back from work until after five. She tells me that because I'm a teenager now, and I don't need a baby sitter to look after me anymore."
Kelly paused uncertainly at the foot of the stairs. "Well, okay," she said finally. "But don't you dare tell anyone."
Jill grinned. "I won't if you won't."
She led her into her parents' bedroom and went to the massive dresser braced against the far wall. Yanking out the bottom drawer, she rummaged around briefly among the pajamas and underwear until she found what she was looking for.
"What do you think of this?" she asked, holding up a plain black mask, devoid of eye holes, and a fist-sized rubber ball with perforated straps attached to it.
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