April Leads Julie Astray

Julie wasn't in many classes with Chip, but if he was disruptive it certainly didn't show up at school. In fact, Chip was really focused on swimming and was a member of the boys' swim team and was so encouraging of his teammates. When finished his own practice he would stand by the side of the pool, watching the other boys intently and cheering them on. He was also so nice to Luke Simpson, a boy who since early in elementary school had been the brunt of many jokes and the target of every bully in school, ridiculed and scorned as a 'mama's boy' and a 'sissy'.

When they were aged about ten, Luke's mother would sometimes drop Luke at the Green house to spend some time with Julie, as she was one of the few kids in his class who was nice to him. But while the younger Julie was indeed nice to him and felt sorry for Luke getting teased, she at times felt uneasy with him and unsure of what to make of him. Luke would look in her closet and admire her dresses, skirts, blouses and other female accessories such as her hair ribbons, saying how pretty these clothes were and how lucky Julie was getting to wear them. He loved a series of books Julie liked, despite the fact that they were clearly written for girls. He even liked the purple flowery drapes that covered the windows of Julie's bedroom, saying he wished he could have curtains like this in his own bedroom, but his parents would be sure to say no. He then wanted to brush Julie's hair, tying it up in braids with ribbons, before brushing them out and fixing her hair into another style.

The polio-affected Julie disliked being patronized, cossetted and babied due to her obvious condition, and had at first thought that Luke was trying too hard to be nice and was only pretending to like girls' things, that he would prefer to be outside running around playing boys' games, something she was unable to do anymore and she became quite irritated. But observing Luke more, it was clear that he genuinely liked these things.

Julie found all this really perplexing, and as they got older she found other things about him that were just as strange. In junior high, Luke had complained to her at length about having to do woodwork, metalwork and mechanical workshop with the boys, and said he wished he was doing cooking, sewing and typing with her and the other girls. This was just downright peculiar. Boys did woodwork, metalwork and mechanical workshop, while girls did cooking, sewing and typing. That was the way things were and always would be.

Then when Chip moved to town and was enrolled at the high school, he and Luke certainly seemed to find a connection and the two spent so much time together, walking together to and from school and going out places on the weekend. Julie thought it a little strange at first, normally guys preferred to hang out together in a group not one on one with each other but Luke seemed happy and had made a true male friend at last. And Chip was such a nice guy befriending the boy who was ridiculed by the majority of his classmates. How could anybody say Chip was a troublesome boy?

Julie's parents often disapproved of April's mini-skirts, however this morning as she was raking up leaves and lawn clippings she wore an old blouse and blue jeans. However, even when April happened to be wearing jeans Reverend and Mrs. Green would say that they were too tight and immodest. And the previous week when April wore to school a dress with a swing-style skirt that came down to her knees, Julie's parents said that the top part of the dress showed a little too much of a part of April's body that was only designed to feed babies. Not that April of course had a baby, but given some of the nasty comments Julie had heard about April, it seemed that both adults and teenagers thought that motherhood would arrive sooner rather than later for April.

Julie looked across the road as April raked leaves into a pile and bent over to pick them up, the sunlight reflecting off the teenager's long, straight blonde hair as she did so. Despite her parents' disapproval of April, Julie really liked her. April was always so nice to her and treated her like an equal, not like some poor crippled girl who was sick as a child. April was so beautiful, graceful and elegant, her figure as perfect as her stunning good looks the highlight of which were April's big blue eyes. She was intelligent too, in all the classes Julie shared with April her pretty blonde classmate always got good grades.

Recently however, Julie had been very confused about her feelings towards April. Yes, she liked April and enjoyed talking with her but lately her emotions had taken Julie to places she never been to before. Whenever April appeared, be it at home or in school or somewhere out in public, Julie's heart felt aflutter. This feeling only doubled when April spoke to her or smiled at her. She often found herself feeling short of breath, blushing and unsure of what to say when April was around. Even if the two girls exchanged a simple hello, Julie would often worry afterwards that she had said the greeting wrong, that she seemed too over-excited and looked silly. Other times Julie worried that her greeting to April was too stiff, too formal or dismissive, and that she appeared rude.

Some other things happening recently perturbed Julie even more. Just two days ago, April had been wearing one of her mini-skirts at school, which Julie had to admit left April little room for error. When April had bent over to pick up her pen her skirt had ridden up, showing Julie the white cotton panties April was wearing. Inside her private feminine area, Julie had felt tingling sensations from her vagina and herself getting damp between her legs. Julie told herself this was ridiculous. Under her own dress she wore a pair of white cotton panties just the same as April's panties, but she could not get the image of April's underwear out of her mind all day.

Julie could not work out what was happening to herself lately. She had had crushes before, but only of course on guys, both boys she knew and some male actors and singers. And Billy, the son of Fred and Betty who were friends of her parents from church had a crush a mile wide on her, not that Julie was reciprocal to his obvious feelings towards her. Julie thought that April's brother and father were nice looking, yet for some reason April excited her so much more. Julie thought sometimes maybe she was going crazy. She couldn't have a crush on a girl, it was impossible.

Across the road, April finished raking and was putting the leaves and clippings into the trash when she turned around to see Julie standing in her own front garden. Julie felt the feelings of worry in the pit of her stomach that perhaps April thought she was staring at her, but the girl was relieved when April gave her a friendly smile and a wave. "Hi Julie."

Julie returned the smile and wave. "Hi April," she said, hoping that she sounded normal and not too overly excited. Then again, maybe she sounded too dismissive? Once more, Julie found herself over analyzing the simplest things she said around April.

"It's a nice day today for your church fete," April observed.

"Yeah, it is," said Julie. "We're having such nice weather this week." At least she was correct on that. The other week she had commented to April as they walked to Geography on Monday that the weather on the weekend had been nice, a perfectly reasonable thing to say except that Raleigh had experienced constant heavy rain all of Saturday, Sunday and it was still raining on Monday, leaving Julie feeling a fool.

Brad finished mowing the lawn and turned off the mower. He turned to see his classmate standing across the road, and gave her a wave and smile like his sister had done. "Hi Julie," he called.

"Hi Brad," Julie called, totally at ease with the handsome young man, yet always so nervous with his pretty sister.

Chip likewise greeted Julie in a friendly way, before Ben Clayton climbed down from his roof and said, "So, are you looking forward to your church fete today Julie?"

The teenager nodded. "I guess."

"The kids and I when we've finished up here, we'll go down and check it out for ourselves," said Ben.

Julie felt excitement bubbling up inside her. April was going to be there, she was actually coming to the church fete. Before she could stop herself, Julie blurted out, "You're coming today? That is so swell!"

Ben Clayton laughed good-naturedly. "You seem very happy about that, Julie. Guess you're not hard to please."

"I um -- ah -- just hope you like it," said Julie, blushing slightly.

Ben looked over Julie's shoulders at the three figures who had emerged from the front door. "Morning Reverend, Mrs. Green, Peter," he said, waving to them across the street.

Julie's father put on his most pious expression. "Good morning, Mr. Clayton."

"I was just saying to young Julie here that the kids and I are going to come along to your church fete this morning," said Ben.

Julie could see her father and to a lesser degree her mother were not pleased by this news, but had to maintain a polite façade. "That's nice, I hope you like it," offered the Reverend Green.

"I'm sure we will," said Ben.

"I'm going to see if they have any books about the solar system at the book stall," said Peter to the Clayton family. "Hey April, do you know what the furthest planet from the sun is?"

April as always was polite and accepting of Peter and his unusual ways. "That would be Pluto," she said.

"Do you know how long it takes Pluto to go around the sun?" Peter wanted to know.

April smiled and shrugged. "You've got me there."

"Two hundred and forty seven years," replied Peter.

"Wow, that's a long time. I don't think I'd like to live on Pluto," said April.

Peter shot her a confused look. "You couldn't live on Pluto. It's too cold. Did you know Mercury is really hot in the day, but at night it gets really cold there ..."

"Okay, okay I think that's enough fun science facts today Peter," said Reverend Green. "We'd better make a move, we don't want to be late setting up."

"I'll see you later then Julie," said April.

"Yes, see you then," said Julie as she followed her parents and brother to the car. She often felt self-conscious walking in a group of people even her immediate family, as for obvious reasons she could not walk as fast as everyone else and often thought all she was doing was slowing everybody down. Julie eased her aching back into the back of the car next to Peter and wondered what fun facts about outer space her brother would bombard her with as their father drove to church.

*

Julie would have preferred that her brother had talked her head off with a million different things about space. Peter's silence in the car trip allowed Reverend Green to lecture Julie in his condescending, pious way about the dangers of not listening to his advice and associating with the neighbors across the street. Julie was glad when they arrived at church, but even that provided no real escape as she had to accompany her parents and brother. They were walking towards the church when Amos came running up to them, clearly in some state of panic. "Reverend, Reverend thank goodness you're here. We really need your help."

Amos was a white haired, bearded man aged in his mid-60s, and one of Reverend Green's most devoted followers, hanging on every word of Reverend Green's sermons each Sunday, even though the content of the said sermons varied little. Apart from the Sunday best suit he wore to church, Amos always wore a check shirt, overalls and boots no matter what time of the year it was and this was how he was dressed today.

"What seems to be the problem, Amos?" Reverend Green asked calmly.

"It's terrible Reverend," said Amos, a man who had the ability to over-dramatize any situation. "Me and Fred and Billy are trying to get the electrical things done and the fuses keep blowing. It's awful, we don't know what to do, we're so glad you're here ..."

"It's okay Amos, I'll come over and take a look," said the Reverend Green with great confidence, his wife and children following. Julie did not feel the same confidence as her father in his abilities to get the power situation sorted out. Reverend Green was a church minister, never an electrician and the thought of Amos, Fred and Billy -- none of whom were electrical contractors either nor showed much competence in general -- working on electrical type things filled the teenager with great apprehension.

Julie of course was not an electrician either, but one glance at what Amos, Fred and Billy had got up to horrified her. It was like the three men had read a book on electrical safety and then done the complete opposite. A series of short electrical cords joined ran from the church, a double-adaptor at the end. Attached to this double adaptor was another extension cord, and another double adaptor, from which ran two more extension leads and at the end of this? More double adaptors from which ran more extension leads.

"Last time the fuse blew there was a buzzing noise from the meter box," Fred advised Reverend Green.

"Perhaps there's a loose connection somewhere?" suggested Reverend Green, bending down to look at the tangled mess of electrical leads.

"Dad, maybe you shouldn't ..." Julie began, but her father cut her off, adopting his usual patronizing tone with his daughter.

"Julie please, can't you see I'm busy here?"

Seeing that Peter was about to walk over to see what their father was doing, Julie's protective big sister instincts came to the fore and she held out her arm to stop him. She didn't want to lose her father and brother to electrocution at the same time. Julie kept well back. As she was the only one wearing a metal leg brace, if something went wrong here she would be most vulnerable to getting electrocuted.

Julie looked at where Amos and Fred stood, their faces filled with admiration for the Reverend, confident he would fix the problem for them. Fred and his wife Betty -- who was nowhere to be seen and if she had any sense she would have moved far away from the electrical safety nightmare her husband and son had helped the bumbling Amos to create -- were likewise big fans of church and unfailing in their attendance.

But while he was a God-fearing man who read the bible and attended church as much as possible, Fred seemed to struggle with two of the deadly sins. One obviously was gluttony, the man over 400 pounds and getting bigger each year. Julie wasn't sure how much these new satellites that orbited the Earth could see, but thought that any American or Russian satellite passing over Raleigh might be able to pick up the image of Fred as an anomaly. His second sin seemed somewhat ironically to be pride, with the morbidly obese man insisting on wearing clothes that were made for a dangerously obese man, his enormous stomach hanging over pants that would not fasten properly.

Fred's son Billy had great potential to emulate his father, and at the age of 19 was already obese. Unlike his father Billy moved clear of the mess of electrical cords and adaptors, not because he feared electrocution but because the object of his affections in Julie had arrived.

"Hi Julie!" the overly enthusiastic Billy yelled out despite the fact she was just a few feet away from him, giving Julie a big wave.

"Hi Billy," Julie replied in a more neutral tone.

"You look very skinny today, Julie."

Julie knew that Billy was not the sharpest tool in the chest, and this was actually meant as a compliment so she was polite in her reply. "Thank you Billy."

"And your pink dress sure is pretty."

"Again, thank you Billy."

"I thought that green dress you wore to church last Sunday was real pretty too," said Billy. "Green suits you. And that's good, because Green is your surname."

Julie again maintained her polite stance, and smiled graciously. All conversations with Billy went somewhat like this, she just had to grin and bear it. He was never going to ask her out not that she would agree to a date anyway, but if Billy went around town wearing a sweater that proclaimed 'I have a crush on Julie Green,' it could not be more obvious that he liked her. He always sat as close to her as possible in church and the other week when he came over to the Green house for lunch with his parents and the Green family, it was like his greatest dream had been realized -- he was in the same house where Julie Green lived.

Billy seemed to have a great liking for the Greens' back garden, spending a lot of time out there. Julie, when she brought in the laundry later that afternoon wondered why Billy liked their back garden so much. As the teenager unpegged her panties from the line and put them in the basket she looked around the garden at the flower beds but couldn't see anything of particular interest. Perhaps Billy was more of a gardening enthusiast than she was?

Julie felt a twinge of pain from her troublesome back and grimaced in discomfort, clutching the affected area with a pained expression on her pretty face. Billy noticed, and looked concerned. "Does your back hurt?"

This seemed pretty darned obvious, but again Julie was polite. "Yes, it does a bit."

"The other day I slept funny and my back was a bit sore when I woke up," observed Billy. "So I know just how you feel."

Billy obviously didn't know how Julie felt given that unlike her he hadn't had polio as a child, but once more Julie was nice in her neutral reply. "Bad backs aren't a lot of fun."

Before Billy could say any more, his father spoke to him. "Billy, go over there and check that double adaptor at the end." Fred pointed to where yet another length of extension cord lay, the end somewhere out of sight."

"Sure Dad," said Billy, following the electrical cord to check out yet another double adaptor, Julie shaking her head in despair.

"When Billy's checked that, can I turn on the power again?" Amos asked.

"Whatever you do, don't turn on the power," came another male voice off to the side.

Julie and everyone else turned to see Ben Clayton walking forward, with April, Brad and Chip behind him, Brad holding hands with his girlfriend Susie. April had changed out of her work clothes, and to the horror of Reverend Green was wearing a tight blue sweater that accentuated her breasts, and a matching mini-skirt that showed off her long legs. The Reverend Green's attention then switched from April to her father.

"Can I help you with something there, Mr. Clayton?" Reverend Green asked.

"Looks like you're having a few problems with the wiring there Reverend," observed Ben.

"Just a few minor hiccups," Reverend Green assured Ben.

"Yeah, fuses have blown seven times," Billy volunteered.

Ben took a closer look at the handiwork of Amos, Fred and Billy and he smiled. "So Reverend, your name is Larry right?"

Reverend Green nodded, not sure of what the man was talking about. "That is correct, Mr. Clayton."

Again, Ben Clayton smiled a good-natured smile. "Well, if you're Larry, this guy must be Curly." Ben indicated Fred. "And this guy here must be Moe." Ben indicated Amos, then looked at Billy. "Not too sure of the young guy over there. Is he Shemp? Joe Besser? Curly Joe maybe?"

Billy as often was the case missed the joke. "I'm Billy."

"Do you have some point that you wish to make Mr. Clayton?" Reverend Green asked, insulted by his disliked neighbor referring to him and three members of his church as the Three Stooges, a comedy act Green had never found funny.

"Only that you cannot run outdoor power out like that," said Ben. "You need specialized electrical equipment, and somebody qualified as an electrician to set it up."

"Well, thank you for the advice, Mr. Clayton," said Reverend Green dismissively.

"I also believe that as a licensed electrical contractor, there is some sort of law in North Carolina that having seen this, I am legally obligated to put a stop to it." Ben indicated the nightmarish network of extension leads and double adaptors.