April Leads Julie Astray

"Mr. Clayton, may I remind you that you and your family are not members of this church?" Reverend Green asked.

"True, I'm not a member of your church but what I do have in the back of my van is the electrical equipment you need for this to run your external power safely today," said Ben. "And I am a qualified electrician and setting this up will take me ten minutes, fifteen at most." Ben took his keys and tossed them to his son. "Brad, bring the van around for me."

"Will do, Dad," said Brad, catching the keys and going to retrieve his father's van.

"Now, let me get this unplugged. I cannot leave this for one second more," said Ben, beginning to unplug the leads and double adaptors.

"Mr. Clayton, if you give me an invoice for this I'll make sure you receive a check straight away," said Reverend Green.

Once more Ben smiled. "No, no payment necessary. Knowing I stopped you or somebody else getting electrocuted or your church burning down today is payment enough."

"I don't know what to say but thank you," said the Reverend Green.

"Thank you is all I want to hear," said Ben, as Brad arrived with the van and Ben set to work.

The teenagers stood nearby watching, except for Peter who made a beeline for the book stand, hoping to obtain more literature on the solar system. Brad stood holding hands with Susie, while Chip stood on his other side until a young male voice, slightly lisping, called out. "Hey Chip!"

Chip turned, and a delighted, almost dreamy look came over the young man's face as Luke came into sight. "Oh hi Luke, how are you?" Chip asked, making haste to where his friend stood.

"Really good, it's such a beautiful morning," said Luke. "Do you want to come with me to the arts and crafts stall? I'm trying to find a perfect gift for my Grandmother's birthday."

"Sure, it sounds swell," said Chip. He turned to the other teenagers. "I'll see you a bit later."

"See you later Chip," said April, Brad, Susie and Julie in unison as Chip and Luke walked away together, Billy too distracted by Julie to offer a response.

"So, I was thinking of seeing that new Rock Hudson movie tonight," said Chip. "Would you like to come along and see it?"

"I love any movie with Rock Hudson in it, so that is a definite yes," said Luke.

The two young men walked away out of earshot, and Julie again found herself puzzled by the dynamic of Luke and Chip, but reasoned as she was a girl she could not know how boys' minds worked. Perhaps Chip and Luke hoped to meet two nice girls at the cinema? That made sense, given girls often went places in pairs.

This left Brad and Susie holding hands, Billy unable to keep his eyes off Julie and Julie herself admiring how great April looked in her mini-skirt and sweater, so modern, so sophisticated and so beautiful. She felt such a square next to her beautiful blonde neighbor as the two girls talked about school while April's father finished off the electrical work required to run the fete's outdoor power, and preventing either a fire or several deaths by electrocution.

Nearby the Reverend Green stood, despising the fact that a man he disliked so much had made him look something of a fool while saving the day. He also cast disapproving glances at the man's teenage daughter, April's mini-skirt attracting quite a lot of attention.

*

God in his infinite wisdom had not given the gift of understanding accountancy to the Reverend Larry Green. The man found things such as cash receipts journals, cash payments journals, general journals, ledgers, debits and credits as unintelligible as the programs used to send rockets into space. Reverend Green keeping the books for his church was out. Helen Green was just as clueless with accountancy and book-keeping matters, so she was out too.

Fortunately, God had provided Reverend and Mrs. Green with a daughter with a natural ability in accountancy, and therefore a readymade book-keeper for the church. So that Saturday evening Julie sat at home counting out the money made at the church fete and recording it in the journal. Normally Julie didn't mind doing the church books, as she was contemplating a job as an accountant after school and college and her father did give her a small amount of money for her book-keeping skills. However it wasn't the same as having a proper job like April had at the boutique. But working a part time job as a waitress or in retail would have not been easy for Julie being on her feet all day.

This Saturday evening, Julie felt like she was the only teenager not having any fun. Peter sat reading his new book about the solar system purchased at the book stand, so he was having fun. Across the road, the younger members of the Clayton family went out to enjoy themselves. Chip and Luke went to see their movie, Brad took Susie to the drive-in and April went out on a double date with a friend who didn't attend their school, the friend's boyfriend and another guy.

Sunday wasn't fun either. Julie struggled to stay awake during her father's long sermon in church about the falling moral standards in society in 1963 that could only anger the Lord. Some of this was caused by modern fashion, such as tight jeans and mini-skirts, but more significant was modern music. The much feared rock and roll didn't seem to be going anywhere, and Elvis Presley was now out of the army and not only making new music, but movies too. Unfortunately, rock and roll in recent years had been joined by other sinful tunes such as surf music from California and Negro groups from the cities in the North such as Detroit. Far worse was the music from England that was now becoming very popular across the Atlantic and which posed very grave dangers to young people who listened to it.

People always complained about Mondays but Julie didn't mind it much -- at least it wasn't Sunday and she wasn't in church. It was always Tuesday she found difficult.

Like most people who had been through the nightmare of having polio as a child, Julie had a wide range of emotions on the subject. She thought about it every day, which was obvious as part of her morning routine involved putting on her leg brace.

One of the main thoughts she had was the mystery of how she caught polio in the first place. The summer of 1954 wasn't as bad as some other years in the early 1950s for polio. Julie obviously wasn't the only kid in Raleigh to suffer that fate that year, but none of her friends, cousins or children at church back at home contracted the disease, nor did any of the other kids at the summer camp she was attending when she fell ill. So the puzzle of where she got it from was never solved.

There was also the regret. The very next year, the Salk vaccine was perfected and so many kids were immunized that by the end of that decade, polio was rare. If only Julie had managed to avoid the disease for that last year everything would have been fine.

Julie often reasoned that things could have been far worse. She had regained the use of her right leg, and the fact that this leg was okay enabled her to drive an automatic car, an achievement she took pride in. While in hospital she had avoided the iron lung, a prospect that petrified her. And her illness did change the views of some members of the church, who thought that polio only affected bad families and bad kids. When the Reverend's own daughter came down with it, many changed their tune straight away and began to donate to organizations such as March of Dimes.

In the nine years that had gone by since, Julie had had to deal with a lot of different reactions by people to her condition, some of which were not nice. As a girl, Julie had gone with her mother to see the doctor for a routine check-up. Julie wasn't sure whether the doctor simply finished last in his medical school for bedside manner or whether he was just downright cruel, but he explained bluntly to Mrs. Green that Julie, although naturally slim, was no longer a 'normal child' but a 'crippled child', and as such she must never be allowed to eat any treat food as she would get fatter quicker than normal kids. One mother had ordered her kids to keep away from Julie in the park one day after seeing the leg brace she wore, telling the kids 'they would end up crippled like that sick girl too' if they went too near her even though her illness lay four years in the past at the time. An economics teacher in junior high would reprimand Julie and give her tardy slips because she was late to his class, despite the fact that she had to walk some distance from her last class and simply could not make it there in time. And just two years ago, a little boy had gone up to Julie and asked her if she was a spastic, to the horror and embarrassment of the boy's mother.

Mostly though, people were kind to her. She had both female and male friends at school and at church. At school boys often volunteered to help her carry things, and Julie frequently felt guilty about it. She was not the only kid in her year affected by polio, there was another boy and another girl named Nora who had mobility problems worse than Julie, but nobody ever volunteered to help them. People thought that boys should help themselves, and Nora was an overweight girl plain in looks.

Modest Julie never thought of herself as pretty, but heard it enough from many different people to know that others considered her this. On one occasion, Julie had a dozen boys all trying to help her move things around in her locker, while Nora limped along struggling with her heavy books and could have been invisible. Another time Julie and Nora were in the same class when the fire alarm sounded as part of a drill, not that the kids knew it was a drill. Boys flocked to Julie's desk to help her get out in time, while Nora was left to fend for herself and probably would have met her end in a real fire.

Julie always tried her best to avoid self-pity and the 'why me?' attitude. There were other people affected by polio far worse than her and confined to wheelchairs, and other people who were crippled in other ways such as men who served in World War II or Korea, or people injured in accidents. However there was one time each week when she always felt resentful and jealous. This was on Tuesday mornings, when all the girls had gym class, and Julie was consigned to the school library to study.

More than anything else Julie longed to be out there with them running around, but she could not be. It annoyed her when other girls complained about having to do gym class in hot, cold, wet or windy weather. Julie would have been happy to do gym class on days over 100 degrees, freezing days with heavy snow and cold winds or in driving rain. If Julie had not contracted infantile paralysis or if she had made full recovery, she would probably be among the girls complaining about adverse weather and gym class coinciding. But she did not of course, so she was stuck in the library working on her calculus homework while the other girls did gym.

The hands on the clock in the library seemed to be turning slower than ever as Julie looked over her calculus assignment and the teenager's head began to nod in the quiet and stuffy atmosphere when a young female voice behind her caused her to jump awake. "Hi Julie."

Turning around Julie saw the slim figure of April walking towards her carrying her geography text book and a file, April as was most often the case dressed in a sweater and a mini-skirt. Julie felt her heart start to race and her palms get sweaty as April drew nearer. "Oh hi, April," she said.

"Did I wake you up there?" April asked, a smile on her face, laughter in her voice.

"No, um yes, maybe a little," admitted Julie.

"Sleeping during study time, I don't know young lady," laughed April. She indicated the spare seat next to Julie. "You don't mind if I join you?"

"No, not at all," said Julie, confused why April was there when normally she would be in gym class. "What happened to gym?"

"I got out of it today because I'm cursed," said April as she took her seat.

"Cursed?" asked Julie.

"Yeah, the curse, I've got my period," said April. "Haven't you heard that expression before?"

"Yes, once or twice," said Julie. "Sorry, I didn't know ..."

"Well I'm not going to go to school wearing a sign around my neck to advertise it," laughed April, but her smile vanished as a menstrual cramp went through her uterus, and she rubbed her painful abdomen.

"Are you okay?" Julie asked.

"Yeah, I just have to suck it up," said April. "I'll lie down with a hot water bottle when I get home. I can understand why they call menstruation the curse."

Julie could understand it too, given how much pain she was in from menstrual cramps when it was her time of the month. "I've got it to look forward to next week," she said.

April looked across at the adjacent table where two boys from the senior class were also studying, and regarding the two girls with apprehensive expressions. "Yes boys, Julie and I are both 18-year-old girls and we get periods every month and we're talking about it. Is there any sort of problem with that?"

The two boys hastily collected their books and papers and scurried to another table far, far away and April laughed and shook her head. "Boys and periods, I don't know. They're terrified of them, but they aren't the ones who get periods. Like my brother and cousin, Brad and Chip seem terrified of me every four weeks. Mind you, I have to admit I can get a bit precious when it's my time of the month. Staying away from me is probably the safe option if you happen to be male."

Julie laughed, and thought about her father. During her last period, Julie had been sitting on her bed with a hot water bottle on her stomach to ease her menstrual cramps when her father casually wandered in, asking Julie if she had seen his spare glasses. As soon as he saw what was wrong with his daughter Reverend Green, usually a man with plenty to say suddenly became all tongue-tied and didn't know how to put a sentence together, mumbling that his glasses were probably in the living room and how nice the weather was, before turning and almost running downstairs. "They would get along with my Dad. If he knows it's that time for me, he never seems to know what to do or say when I'm around."

"Typical," laughed April, as she set to work on her Geography assignment, her map diagrams impeccable and Julie could not help but be impressed.

"Your maps are really good. I like the way you've captured the topography."

"Thanks Julie," smiled April. She glanced at Julie's calculus homework. "You've solved question 9. I couldn't make head nor tail of it."

"It wasn't the easiest," said Julie. "I was meaning to say, it was really good of your Dad to fix the electrical problems at the fete. That was a nightmare what those guys were doing."

"Yeah, it was," said April. "Dad is really careful with electricity. Well in his line of work, he has to be. One mistake and, you know." April paused for a second and said under her breath, "But Dad's only made one really serious mistake in his life."

"Sorry?" Julie asked.

April suddenly looked apprehensive. "Oh nothing, just talking to myself, just forget I said that, okay?"

"Okay," said Julie, quickly forgetting what April had said as they continued to study together. Julie half-expected to see the stern, balding figure of her father to appear in the doorway of the school's library and admonish her for associating with April again, but of course he did not.

The study period passed quickly for the two girls and they had English together next, so they set off for class together, talking happily but with Julie again half-expecting her disapproving father to show up. The two girls took their seats in English next to each other, and Julie could not help but notice April discretely adjust her sanitary belt through her mini skirt and panties.

Despite the fact that she spent six days each month dealing with sanitary belts that would not stay comfortable as they held bulky sanitary pads in place inside her panties, Julie found it hard to imagine that the beautiful blonde April had the same feminine problems she did every time she had her period. April seemed so perfect that she would be somehow above the problems that affected ordinary women. Despite knowing it was ridiculous, Julie could not quite believe that the perfect April actually menstruated but obviously she did, the girl had said as much herself.

A similar thing happened the very next day when April and Julie walked together to first period Geography together, and stopped at the girls' room. As Julie sat on the toilet in one of the stalls behind a closed and locked door, her dress hitched up around her waist and her white cotton panties down around her ankles, she found it hard to believe that in the next stall April likewise was sitting on the toilet with her skirt raised and her panties around her ankles. When Julie reached for the toilet paper, she heard the sound of April unwinding toilet paper from the roll in her own stall and found herself once more disbelieving that the stunning blonde beauty actually used toilet paper. When both teenagers finished, flushed the toilets, unlocked and opened the doors and emerged, standing at the sinks to wash their hands Julie noticed April adjust her panties through her mini-skirt. Again, Julie found herself unable to believe that perfect April had irritations with uncomfortable panties as such a problem seemed beneath a girl so wonderful in every way.

All that Thursday Julie went around feeling like she was floating on a cloud, the images of April's pretty face and perfect body in her mind's eye. She loved the way April spoke, the way April walked and pretty much everything April did. That night at home, Julie had changed into her long blue pajamas with clean panties underneath, and stood barefoot in the bathroom brushing her teeth before bed, wishing April was standing beside her brushing her own teeth and they were about to have a sleepover. But the very notion of April having a sleepover with their teenage daughter would be enough to send Mrs. Green into nervous shock, and put Reverend Green in the hospital with a heart attack.

Rinsing out her toothbrush, Julie gripped the bathroom rails that were there to assist her when as was the case now she wasn't wearing her leg brace. The girl moved herself slowly out of the bathroom and down the hall, once more gripping the rail there then into her bedroom, moving herself carefully into bed and getting under the covers. Turning out the light, the teenager's beautiful brown eyes fluttered as she closed her eyes and went to sleep in a matter of minutes. Always so cute when asleep, Julie was even prettier tonight as April entered her dreams and she smiled in her sleep.

*

Friday was a pretty swell day too, and Julie was in for a surprise at lunchtime. As the girl paid for her lunch at the cafeteria she looked around for her friends from church she normally ate with, but they must have been delayed as they were nowhere to be seen. Then Julie heard a familiar female voice, "Hey Julie, come and sit with us if you like."

Turning around, Julie saw April sitting at her table with some of her friends, Brad and his girlfriend Susie and some of her friends there too. Chip wasn't with his cousins, he and Luke were eating lunch together at another table a short distance away as they always did.

"Thanks, are you sure it's okay?" Julie asked.

April laughed. "Of course it's okay. Come on over."

"Okay, thanks April," said Julie, making her way over to April's table and sitting down with April, Brad and their friends.

While eating lunch with April, Brad and their friends Julie felt very excited to be sitting with the cool kids, but out of place too. They were all the same age, and in fact some younger than her given Julie was one of the eldest in her year group courtesy of a September birthday but Julie felt like they were college students as they seemed so much older than her. Julie also felt nervous, worrying that she would either say too much, say too little and seem rude, or say the wrong thing and look stupid. But she had another good reason to be nervous too. Quite a lot of the students at this school attended her father's church, and their parents knew Julie's parents. The news that Julie was associating with April and Brad Clayton could find its way back to her parents pretty quickly. Then Julie saw the student who could act as the direct link to carry this information right back to her parents in the form of her younger brother Peter.