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I felt my eyes pool up, stop
it don't cry no one was here to attack me. I am just hearing
things. I gathered up a bit of courage and realized the chances of
another attack actually happening to me must be slim to none. I
have never heard of a girl getting sexually assaulted or attacked
2-3 times a year.

Once I got myself to imagine
that I just heard a stray cat, or Rocky the Raccoon I felt better.
We have a raccoon that comes up to our back door once in a while
and we feed it by hand. We obviously named him “Rocky the Raccoon”
but once it started knocking over our outside garbage cans digging
for food and bringing friends, making a huge mess we stopped
feeding him and eventually they stopped coming around. I inched
toward the sliding door to peek out. I heard something again. I
flipped the outside light on and peeked out the sliding door and
saw a raccoon flinching on the porch on its side, not quite dead
yet.

I heard another noise,
screamed and held the pan over my head, my heart leapt so hard it
hurt. I saw a shadow of headlights flash threw the house. My dad
must be home. I ran to the front window and saw him pulling down
the driveway and then went and looked out the kitchen window. I
didn’t see anyone.

I ran down the stairs and
told my dad about the noises and the raccoon. He told Tori and I
not to move and went out the garage door. I saw him grab a bat and
sneak out of the garage. We were standing in the hall not making a
peep or moving an inch, I was still holding the pan when my mom
pulled in the garage. She came in the door holding two bags said “I
got ice cream!” Kit and Tori ran upstairs and she followed. My dad
came in “Yep a dead raccoon, nothing to worry about.” he said and
rubbed my head. And that was it, no one else thought another thing
about it.

I went in my room to do my
homework and started thinking about my date with Cale, I got really
worried about our first date – I imagined going out to dinner,
after he tried kissing me and I tell him no, WHAM! He's on top of
me and I'm struggling to get away and then I'm the crazy girl
crying again. Same vision I always have where I cannot get out from
under him and I can't scream. My sister startled me and asked if I
was okay, “Yeah, I'm fine” I said sarcastically. “Just
asking!” she replied in the same tone, total sister
'I don't care'
jargon.

I have to stop worrying
about it, I thought of Cale and then I thought if mom likes him
he’s probably a geek. On the other hand if he is one of the most
popular boys in school, maybe he just knows how to talk to adults.
I think I’ll cancel; I can't do this and went to bed. I had bad
dreams again, this time I was at the football game and Cale came up
to me and started shaking me, but when I woke up my mom was waking
me for school.

As I got ready for school, I
was still preoccupied with the notion of whether I would even go
out with Cale or not. When I got to the kitchen, my mom
and dad were talking, my dad turned to me and grabbed me by the
shoulders, my mom hovering over “I guess you may have seen someone
in our yard last night, the White's house got broken into last
night.”

I was too tired to make any
sense of this or anything right now. The Whites were our neighbors
and although we had large yards, the sides of our two houses were
kind of close together.

“I told the police you saw
something but didn't see any details. Is that right?” My dad asked
me.

“No” I said slowly “I mean
no, I didn't see any details on who or what it was, I just heard
stuff and found the raccoon.”

“Yeah about that, it wasn't
there this morning.”

“What?” I asked still in a
fog, time for some coffee.

“The raccoon, from the porch
is gone, another animal probably snatched it up for
dinner.”

“Ewww” was the response he
got from me and my mother. Tori walked in “What'd I miss.” No one
answered her. I went about the business of getting my breakfast
together. We've never had any problems in our neighborhood before,
Tori and I talked about it on the way to the bus stop. I think it
was the first time Tori and I actually socialized at the bus stop,
it was kinda nice.

I was too preoccupied by the
break-in, it was consuming my head but not for too long before I
remembered the fact that I had to make a decision about dating Cale
came back to me. I wondered if Nic even liked Topher or would
consider a double date. Who was I kidding of course she would,
Topher is gorgeous. Maybe if they went with us it would be much
easier and less pressure for me. I guess I'd be
finding out soon enough. 

I met Nic at
her locker. I was in a better mood, but still a little
weirded out about our neighbor's house getting broken into.
I told her the deal about Friday night and she said
“You should have said yes, you know I don't have
plans and if I did I would have canceled. Why
didn't you call me last night?” 

“I'm asking you now. Would
your answer have been any different last night versus
today?”

 “You know you
are always a smart ass. Yes, I will
go.” Nic said excitedly.

 “Sorry, I just don't have a very good filter.
Plus, I don't know if I want to go, I'm
not sure I'm ready to go. I get all wigged out
when I think about it.” I looked at Nic and I knew
she understood what I was talking about.

“Addie, if we go on a double
date we'll stick together, I'm sure there will be nothing to worry
about. Girls always go to the bathroom in pairs so we'll just make
sure we stay together. It'll be fine.”

I looked at her with a hard
face and said “You better, promise me.”

“I promise, besides us girls
have to stick together. Two are better than one!” As we walked
to class I could tell Nic was super happy, she
couldn't stop smiling. I briefed her on my dream and my neighbor’s
house.

I waited for class
to start, the lecture and assignment were given and the radio
turned on. Cale came up to me right after the teacher was
done talking. “Addie why didn’t you call me back last
night?” 

“Hmmm, there are
only so many phone calls I can make in a night, besides
I told you I would see you today and the fact that I
didn't write down your number made it a problem.” I continued “Just
so you know I am not a typical girly
girl.”

Nic chimed in “She's not.”
Shaking her head in agreement with her lips pursed.

“I don't like to talk
on the phone a bunch. You know girly stuff really isn't me, like
putting make-up on is okay, but I don't want to spend
hours doing it, and I am not one to spend hours in
bathrooms like most girls either. However, I did put a brush
through my hair today just for you.” I said pushing my hair up at
the ends, then held a slight pause and smile. Cale just looked at
me with his crooked smile and puts his head down.

“You really are somethin',”
he said.

“Nic and I are fine for
Friday. Shall we make it a date?”

“Yes, good” he said letting
out an exasperated breath. He looked up at me, looking me in the
eyes so I couldn't look away “You should wear your hair up
tomorrow.” He said, and it sounded more of like a command than a
suggestion. So my smart mouth replied, “Yeah, okay just because you
asked my dear.” and I laughed. Nic nudged my side.
“Oww!”

“Next time call me back
would ya, I was going to skip first and
second period today, but came in just so I could talk to
you.”

“Ohhhh, sorry.” I
said.

“You are being sarcastic
aren’t you? It works for you though.” He squinted his eyes at me
and gave me a half smile.

“Addie is a bit cranky
today, she had a bad day and night yesterday. Her neighbor’s house
got broken into,” Nic said. I think she's trying to cover for me, I
guess I need to chill.

“I didn't mean to be
sarcastic that time, I would never interfere with cutting classes,
really,” and although I meant it to be serious, it wasn't coming
out that way. I am surprised he didn’t cancel with me on the
spot.

Cale looked down at his feet
and then over at Topher and nodded his head toward us
and he came over to talk with the three of us. They were
leaning on our desks just chatting; Topher is very funny, we all
laughed with him. Nic said under her breathe “Check that
out.”

“What? Check what out?”
Topher responded.

“
All the girls, look
at all the girls in the class, they’re all staring
at us.” The boys turned their heads slightly to check out
the scene and gave a half quiet laugh.

I said “They aren’t staring
at us they are gazing at the good view they have.”

Cale stood right up knowing
I meant that the girls were staring at their butts. Cale admitted
under his breath “They aren’t staring at our butts.” He actually
turned a little blush. Topher changed his stance; he leaned on the
desk sideways so his rear faced the front of the class where no one
else sat.

“Trust me if I was sitting
over there that’s what I would be looking at – do you think they
are looking at me because I look so good today???” I batted my
eyes. They both pursed their lips together which led me to believe
they agreed with me.

“And look you're both
blushing too!” I continued.

“Cale, she is sarcastic but
funny and… on that note I'm going back to my desk and... I am going
to walk backwards.” as Topher began to walk backwards and try to
navigate himself around a bar stool he fumbled a little. It
was funny, we all laughed. Nic said “Really no viewing
for us?” he bumped into the cutting board table still blushing and
turned around to look where he was and then turned around
again to get back to his desk. We both caught a glimpse, “It
is a nice view.” Nic said and I agreed with an
“mm-hmmm” we exhaled and giggled under our
breath.

“Addie and Nic, I
can’t believe you two. “ Cale said still blushing.

“Me either, we are in rare
form today.” I replied. Cale had changed his stance and actually
seemed uncomfortable looking right at me with his crooked smile and
a twinkle in his eye. “You are worse than guys.”

“What’s wrong Cale?” Nic
asked sweetly. He took my notebook wrote his number on it leaned
back on my desk on his elbows pushing himself a little closer to me
and said softly so no one else could hear "Paybacks!” When he said
it he gave me a chill down my spine and he walked
away.

 But a fine walk that
was – Nic and I looked at each other - what did we get
ourselves into, we sure hope they don’t pay us back. Because now
that I think of it, 
if
I knew the whole class was looking at my butt, I
would most definitely be a little uncomfortable myself,
maybe.

As soon as they were out of
ear shot I turned to Nic – she was smiling ear to ear
“Holy crap Nic I cannot believe that you and I have a
date with some of the hottest guys in school and Topher is
totally funny too! And you're right the two of us will be fine
together on a date and I think it'll be fun!” Nic started
saying how nice they were and how excited she was about the date
when my sister walked up. 

I froze and looked at
her, she said with a big sincere smile “Hey! Why were Cale and
Topher over here? “I decided to be nice about
it, and I told her straight out,
“Nic and I have a double date with Cale and Topher
on Friday.” I expected some flak from her but instead she
was cool and asked us the details. I ticked another one
off for our new found relationship.

Nic and I had a plan. I
decided to wait until about 5 minutes before the class was
over before I went up to Cale and Topher,
so I didn't have to talk too long. At five 'til I went
over and said “Hey sorry about my comments earlier I really didn’t
mean to embarrass you, I sometimes have no filter, I just say what
comes to mind – no thought process involved
obviously...”

Topher
interrupted “Don’t apologize – I thought you were cooler
before. Besides we have already plotted our revenge.”

Cale asked me what I was
holding and I replied “Nothing, it's a drawing but it's not done,
I’ll show you later.” I felt both their eyes on me while I
returned back to my seat, it could have been the sign I was
holding over my butt as I walked, it read “Bring it
on!” with a simple curved shape “W” under it. I heard them
both laugh as I walked away. I barely made out Topher’s words.. “I
like these girls!”

The bell rang and we piled
out of class. Cale was waiting outside the door and grabbed
my hand. His hand was cool and soft.

“Where are you headed?” he
asked.

“Class.”

“Which class”?

“History.”

“I remember, I’ll walk
you,” we walked a few steps and Cale said “So now you’re blushing,
so it's not going to be that hard to get you back then. Or is
me holding your hand embarrassing?”

My face felt warm,
I was completely flushed, I felt uncomfortable, edgy, I wanted
him to let go, though I wasn't sure why. All I could say was “No,
of course not, you just caught me off guard.” We walked in sort of
an uncomfortable silence.

We reached my class quickly,
which I was happy about. I let go of his hand and said “Here we
are. Soooo the four of us are going out Friday. We should have
fun.” I was leaning against the wall and Cale across from me when
Mr. Emotional comes up and just stands right next to us.