The Birthday Battle, part one

My birthday. Somehow I’d survived three weeks of perpetual aching which threatened to drive me up the wall in PE, not to mention a related problem reliably coming up several times a day. I was meeting Morgan tonight, for what I very much hoped would be a blissful ending to my interminable wait! One hurdle remained though, because Jenny had insisted on throwing me a birthday tea round at hers. I couldn’t turn down her invitation without explaining to her what my other plans were, and as I had a feeling Jenny wouldn’t exactly be thrilled to know about these, there wasn’t much choice but to get the tea over with first!

My friend and I were walking home that Saturday afternoon, which was to say he was, whereas I was heading for the bus stop to Jenny’s house. We passed a girl who was trotting up some concrete steps while we were making our way down. Before our staring eyes the wind flitted at her skirt, lifting it enough for us both to see the smooth stockinged softness of her thighs.

“Can you believe that?” exclaimed my friend as soon as she’d gone. He was characteristically flushed beneath his freckles and, I had to admit, very wide-mouthed.

My strongest feeling however was of fear, that such a sight would put me in the state I’d been fighting against for weeks. The last thing I needed was to show up at Jenny’s like that, when she’d already complained about it once before! “Oh, quick, let’s get on,” I pleaded.

We tried to, but boys everywhere needed to look out because girls were taking the town centre by storm! Of all people, the one my friend and I bumped into in the midst of them all was Suzette, wearing tiny black shorts with her name spelled out on the butt in spangles.

“Hi Suzette!” I cried aloud, predictably breathless to see her.

“Hi, boy,” she smirked back. Still, I fairly glowed with pride that my friend saw I knew the little star of our netball club!

“Your girlfriend told me once that pants with your name on the back are fun,” I remarked to him after Suzette had gone. He rolled his eyes as if this was something embarrassing he had to put up with, though I could only think of how lucky he was.

“Never mind her, tell me more about that little Suzette!” he said eagerly. “How can I get to know her?”

“I don’t know why you’re so desperate for Suzette when you’ve got a cutie of your own like Jane!” I cried.

“You’re just jealous, birthday boy, and by now the whole school knows why!” he teased me with a cheeky grin. “Cheer up, I’m sure either Jenny or Morgan between them are going to give you the present you want!”

I flushed. “Well to answer your question, if you want to get to know Suzette you’ll just have to take up netball like me,” I fired back – in rather too loud a voice, as it turned out!

For two more girls were passing at the time, both younger than me but old enough to be wearing stockings like the first one we saw. At the thought of how they must have heard me say I played netball, and what that must have looked like coming from a boy in white ankle-socks like mine, I just squirmed inside.

Jenny’s Mum, after greeting me with a Happy Birthday, informed me her elder daughter was still on her way home from a weekend tennis tournament she’d played in. As Jenny’s sister wasn’t around either I waited on my own in the living room while their Mum was busy in the kitchen. This was just great, I grumbled to myself, and how like Jenny! She really knew how to make an effort for someone else’s birthday!

Presently she came in, swinging her tennis racquet and very pleased with herself. She still had her whites on and the smell of her filled the room. I shifted restlessly on the settee.

“I’ve just played a boy from upper sixth, and beat him too!” Jenny sang, hopping up and down on both feet as she would have done on the tennis court.

“Well, good for you!” I replied. “Meanwhile I’ve been having quite a nice birthday so far, thanks for asking!”

I didn’t add that I suspected it was about to go downhill for a bit. Jenny ignored the sarcasm anyway and walked across the room so she was standing right in front of the sofa, with her back to me. Then suddenly she bent all the way over to tie up her sneakers. For a moment, the many lines of frills spanning the broad back of her white knickers were shoved right in my face.

I knew I couldn’t bear that right now! Terrified of my inevitable reaction I scrambled clumsily to my feet at once, wishing I could shove Jenny roughly out of the way while I was at it.

“Don’t you usually get changed in your room?” I cried out.

Jenny faced me. “I was only tying my shoelaces,” she said with dignity.

Even if that was true, what she’d done had left me crimson in the face and unable to catch my breath. Worst of all, she’d had the very effect on me I’d feared, and this was extremely apparent.

“The good thing about tennis with older boys is they can control themselves,” Jenny went on, airily. “Sammy may have been scared of it happening to him, but at least he agreed to play me all the same.”

Sammy? That was the last straw. “I may not be as good at gym as some girls but I’m no more scared to play than he is!” I burst out.

“There’d still be no point in our playing again,” Jenny scoffed. “Not the way you’ve been getting your panties in a twist over these.”

And with that she slid her tennis racquet deftly underneath the swelling at the front of my shorts, and bounced me once on her taut elastic strings.

It wasn’t the pain. In fact she hadn’t done it hard, so it only hurt a little. Three weeks was just a bit too long though. That Jenny might have done it because she was jealous of Morgan didn’t even cross my mind. Suddenly, as far as I was concerned, they were both in it together. The one putting me through something she’d never have to go through, and then the other making it worse. Two girls strutting around all superior and confident and untouchable.

“Don’t do that!” I burst out in a fury, one hand clasping myself tight in case she tried it again. “Alright, I will play you at tennis! And I’ll win too!”

“You’ll try,” Jenny replied with a little smile as she sauntered out of the room, her white tennis skirt flipping on her bottom.

END OF PART ONE