Stanley Ethers and my relationship was growing stronger each day. The beginning of October 1981, he became my first “boyfriend”. Stan and I sent each other “love” notes to each other. Topher and his girl followers knew all about the relationship, and Topher was getting very upset. He wanted to see Stan and me break up. He spent a lot of time with Stan during recess and kept asking, “What do you see in Kelly Sands? She’s mean and stuck-up.”

Luckily, Stan just chuckled softly and shook his head. He glanced at Topher and walked away. I was so proud of him. When Topher or I would walk into each other’s paths, he would ask me, “Have you kissed Stan yet?”

I would tell him that we didn’t kiss yet or it wasn’t any of his business. However, Stan and I didn’t kiss, because we felt we were too young. I never told Stan about me making out with another boy during my Kindergarten year, but I respected Stan’s wishes to wait. Stan and I did make marriage plans, and we planned on getting married when we were 22 years old. He thought that was a great age to get married, and having two kids. I thought waiting fourteen years for us to get married would take a lifetime, but I did respect his wishes.

Topher’s girls started being nice to me, and they talked to me a lot about Stan and my relationship. I felt they were asking for advise how to get a boyfriend at a young age. I was nice to them, but I was also very suspicious, and I didn’t know when they would try to tear me apart again. When those girls asked me for love advice, I felt very mature. I knew that Topher was going to haunt me down about the relationship soon after the girls reported back to him everything that I told them. Topher did start telling me rumors about Stan, so I would break up with him. He told me that he had a girlfriend before he met me, and of course, I didn’t care. I shrugged my shoulders and walked away. A couple weeks later, he came up with another story to get me turned off, and whispered, “Stan changes his baby sister’s diapers…”

I waited for him to tell me some more facts about Stan that would supposedly shock me, so I didn’t reply back. Topher just stood in front of me waiting for me to make some kind of a reaction. I shrugged my shoulders, and growled, “So, what???”