Topher roared, “Don’t you care? He saw a naked girl?”

Right then, I wanted to fall over, because that was the dumbest thing that Topher said to me and hoped that I would gross out. I growled again, “It is a baby… What is the big deal about seeing a naked baby? He has to help his mom take care of his baby sister…”

Before Toper said anymore, I walked away to avoid seeing him and hearing his silly words. I also realized that he wasn’t very smart. I was hoping the other kids would discover that.

—————–

During the Winter of 1982, the weather was too cold for most of the kids in the elementary school to go outside during recess time. I didn’t mind staying in, because I never did like recess. Some of the kids, including Stanley Ethers and Topher Baines, went outside to play. I never understood why they liked being out in the cold weather. While I was sitting at my desk figuring out what to do during that time, Stephanie Jones from the other classroom came inside my classroom, and sat next to me; and noticed a boy in my class with auburn hair and freckles all over his cheeks, “Kelly, who is that?”

I quietly answered, “That is James Korn.”

Stephanie’s brown eyes grew, “Oh, wow!”

After I gave her a funny look, I asked, “Why?”

“Oh…no reason,” Stephanie answered after she shook her head quickly.

During the rest of the recess time, Stephanie rested her chin on her hand and stared at James. She thought he was the cutest boy she has ever seen in that elemetary school. She was wondering how he could notice her, and soon become her boyfriend. James didn’t look at her during the whole reccess break.

The next day during lunch time at school, nobody was in my classroom, Stephanie snuck inside and hid an 8″x11″ picture of herself inside James desk. She quickly ran out of the classroom, so no one would catch her. That little girl was hoping that James would fall for her the minute he saw that picture. Stephanie never told anybody about that day until several years later.

After lunch was over, James was looking through his desk to find one of his text books and came across that big picture of Stephanie, and didn’t say anything. He quickly hid it under all of his books in his desk hoping that nobody saw that picture. His face turned bright red and kept quiet for a couple hours. He did take that picture home, so no one at school would find it in his desk.

————-

A new girl enrolled in my classroom. She was my height and our hair was the same color. However, her hair was straighter than mine. She had a cute face. She had green eyes. She was not shy at all, and she automatically became my friend. Her name was Rachel. I finally had a girl pal that I could talk to everyday in class.

Topher Baines wanted Rachel to join his gang, but she read him like a book, and knew he was not a nice boy. Rachel also stayed away from his girls, and I was loving it. Right then, I knew that Rachel would never go to the oppisite group of kids during the rest of the school year.

That day during lunch time, Stanley Ethers, Rachel, and I sat together. Stan was paying less attention to me, and was staring at Rachel with a goofy smile. I was actually getting upset and jealous. I felt I was losing my boyfriend, and I wanted to cry, but I didn’t do anything for the rest of the day. I didn’t hold a grudge on Rachel, because she wasn’t doing anything to turn him on, and she wasn’t stabbing me in the back.

After school, I walked straight home and I couldn’t stop thinking about Stan flirting with Rachel and giving her goofy looks. I thought I better prepare myself when we break-up, so he could be Rachel’s boyfriend. I was very sad that evening and night.