The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc (32 page)

could help him.”

“What suddenly gave you the urge to take up missionary work?”

Betty Ruth wanted to know.

“I don’t know, I’m just full of urges,” said Sissy. The girls broke

up at that and Miss Loretta told them to mind their own pots.

“What’s really going on? You can tell us,” whispered Doreen across

the stove.

“Nothing!” Sissy said innocently. “Can’t a girl do a good deed?”

“Yeah, well, if you want to do a real good deed, just send Parker

to me and I’ll satisfy a whole
lot
of urges,” said Betty Ruth.

Doreen giggled and Sissy said, “You better keep your painted fin-

gernails off Parker, you hear?”

“Girls!” said Miss Loretta, clapping her hands. “That’s enough.”

Doreen watched Sissy dreamily stir and burn her stew. She turned

to Betty Ruth and whispered, “What do you think she wants with

Peewee?”

“I don’t know, but whatever it is, Peewee better watch out.”

Peewee walked out onto the football field as if he owned it.

He was taking an article to the head cheerleader. He adjusted his

glasses proudly. He’d been over to her house every night this week.

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He hadn’t actually gotten up the nerve to talk about much beside

European history yet, but he would as soon as he thought she was

ready.

Of course, he knew she was going steady with Parker Davidson

and he respected that. Especially since they hadn’t gone out for

almost two months and Sissy explained that while Parker was a

great football star, he wasn’t so much fun to study with. Peewee

took a deep breath. Fun to study with! That’s me. Fun. Sissy said so.

He saw Parker out on the field with Doreen McAlister and veered

over to the sideline.

Doreen’s face was alive with the drama and the sadness of her

revelation. “I hate to be the one to tell you, because I’ve always

considered Sissy my very best friend, but she’s been with him every

night this week.”

“Come off it, Doreen,” Parker said with the easy grace of confi-

dence.

“Have you tried to call her?”

“Yeah, every night. And she was always there.”

“Have any long conversations?”

That stopped him. Then he said, “This whole thing’s crazy. If

Sissy’s been with Peewee LeBlanc, she must have had a good reason.

Maybe she was helping him with an assignment.”

“Maybe, but I don’t want to see you get hurt.” Doreen pushed

back her long blond hair and looked ever-so-sympathetic, but at the

same time she stood so he could see her breasts protruding from

beneath her cheerleader sweater. He knew Doreen was proud of her

large breasts.

Parker took her by the arm and turned her around so she could

see Peewee strutting across the football field, clutching his books to

him. “You telling me that’s my competition?” Doreen had to giggle.

“The day I have to worry about Peewee LeBlanc is the day I’m

gonna give up on girls.”

“Well, I do hope that day never comes,” she said, twisting a

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strand of golden hair around her finger, “because I’m sure if you

and Sissy ever really broke up, half the girls in the school would be

standing in line to console you.”

He laughed. He was too happy to worry about gossip, even

though he’d been hearing about Peewee all week. Parker was going

out with Sissy that very night. Officially. Their separation was over.

The coach blew his whistle. Parker started to run onto the field and

then turned back to Doreen. “You want some brotherly advice?”

She hesitated a moment and then said bright and hard, “Of

course. I always want to improve myself.”

“Stop bad-mouthing your very best friend,” he said, and trotted

out onto the field as Doreen ran to the sidelines, her face red with

humiliation.

Sissy was lying on the ground in front of the stadium. Miss

Robbie and the coach had just about practiced her to death. They’d

wanted to see if their head cheerleader could travel the length of the

football field doing cartwheels. They found out.

She couldn’t.

And she didn’t care. Sissy lay there with her eyes shut until the

ground stopped whirling around her. When she opened them and

lifted her head, she saw Bourrée swaggering across the rotating

football field. The swamp of misery began to dry up. She sat up,

smoothing down her hair. But then the stadium stopped turning,

and she saw it was only Peewee.

She gave him her hand. He held it for a moment, as if he didn’t

know what he was supposed to do with it. So she said, “You just

gonna leave me on the ground or what?”

He blushed and apologized and pulled her up. “I brought that

science article, the one I told you about.” He shuffled through his

books and papers until he found a copy of
Popular Mechanics
.

“That was so
sweet
of you! You came all the way out here to give

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me this!” She said it as if she meant it, enjoying the effect she had

on him.

Peewee took a deep breath and grinned. “I was proud to do it.

Do you want to study tonight?”

She put on her best look of regret. “Oh, Peewee, I can’t.” The

Letter Club was holding its Awards Dinner that evening.

Parker had given his parents an ultimatum: he was taking Sissy

or he wasn’t going. They gave in. They had to. Refusing his awards

would be an insult to the town. They had a business to run.

Sissy’s parents gave in, too. They thought seven weeks was long

enough. Besides, Hugh was covering the dinner for the paper.

Sissy was excited about her date with Parker, and was looking

forward to all the attention they’d get when she walked into the

banquet on his arm. The whistles and the catcalls and the applause.

But she was uneasy, too. When they’d gone out before she had

been a girl. Now she was a woman. A fallen woman. Would

Parker be able to tell? Boys all claimed they could. And Parker had

such high standards. She wasn’t sure she could live up to them any-

more. Sissy felt her heart racing. She didn’t want Parker to aban-

don her, too.

“I guess you have a date with Parker.”

Sissy nodded and saw his face fall. Saw him slump down into

himself. She didn’t know why, but she hated to see this boy suffer. It

was like watching one of these birds Bourrée shot but hadn’t quite

killed.

She glanced out onto the field. The first string was all piled up on

top of each other. Parker was on the bottom and couldn’t see her.

She took Peewee’s fallen face into her hands. “I’m sorry.” Those

light blue eyes of Bourrée’s stared at her, but so sadly. She kissed

Peewee gently on the lips, just to make him feel better.

Peewee felt a shock go straight through him. He squeezed his

eyes shut and threw his arms around her. He heard whistles blow.

He felt how soft her body was, felt her breasts pushing right into his

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chest. He tilted his pelvis to touch her, just to feel her against him,

but instead felt her step back and try to push away. Of course she

was trying to push away, his brothers had told him good girls had

to pretend not to like it. But he held on, just like they told him to.

He felt her long fingers on his shoulders, pushing. But he wasn’t

ready to let go.

Suddenly, Peewee was flying. His feet weren’t even touching the

ground.

Parker Davidson had him by the collar. “Get your cotton-picking

hands off her!” Parker yelled, shaking him like wet laundry.

“Put him down,” Sissy said.

Parker glared at Sissy. One fist twisted Peewee’s collar, the other

was poised to slam into his flesh.

“Parker, you stop it this minute, you hear!” She stamped her foot.

Peewee couldn’t hide his delight as he kicked Parker Davidson in

the shin, jerked out of his grasp, and dropped to the ground. “You

heard the lady,” Peewee gloated.

Parker pulled back and slugged the ugly, puffed-out toad in the

belly. He felt him fold up over his hand. He brought his right up

fast and felt his bare knuckles connect with the toad’s cheekbone.

He heard the crack as he knocked him to the ground, crushing his

glasses. But it was over way too fast. The toad was too easy. He

didn’t put up a fair fight. Parker stood over the curled, quivering

body and felt his foot ache to connect with the round toad head. He

pulled back his cleated boot.

Sissy jumped between them; her eyes blazed a deep green. “For

God’s sake, Parker, you want to kill him?”

Parker knew he’d never wanted anything so much in his life. His

foot ached to connect and squash this cowering, gelatinous mass.

But Sissy stood in front of him and stared him down.

Suddenly, Parker was horrified at what he’d almost done. Sissy!

He was awed and nauseated by the power she had over him. He

stood very still, shaking, trying to control himself, not knowing

what to do with his hands.

T h e S c a n d a l o u s S u m m e r o f S i s s y L e B l a n c 2 1 9

“Now you just calm down,” she said, but she was proud as she

could be. She’d always had plenty of boys after her, but they’d

never fought over her before. Not that Peewee was much of a

fighter. “My goodness, you didn’t have to half kill the poor boy, we

were just . . .”

But Parker didn’t let her finish. “I saw what you were doing,

Sissy. You think I’m stupid?”

“Of course not, sugar,” she said, going toward him, putting her

hands on his shoulders. He threw them off. “You don’t think there’s

anything between Peewee and me, do you?” She was incredulous.

The thought was ridiculous.

Parker didn’t answer. Instead he grabbed his class ring, which she

wore on a chain, and snapped it right off her neck.

“Parker!” she called. But he turned and ran back onto the foot-

ball field.

She put her hand to her throat and rubbed it. She hadn’t wanted

to break up with Parker. She tried to think of a way around it. But

a feeling of numbness was setting in. Everyone she cared about was

abandoning her. She couldn’t deal with so much loss. She welcomed

numbness.

She saw Parker hurl himself into two of Gentry’s biggest tackles

as in a dream. She figured she might as well enter a convent as far as

her social life was concerned. None of the boys would want to take

out Parker’s girl, even if he didn’t want her anymore, not after she’d

humiliated him. Especially not after she’d humiliated him with Pee-

wee LeBlanc.

Peewee rolled onto his feet, holding his stomach. He was very

shaky, but there was pride in his voice. “You broke up with Parker

Davidson for me?”

“I guess,” Sissy said, not paying him much attention. Memories

of the fun she and Parker had had together flooded her senses. She

thought about how sweet he’d been the night Norm had died. A

lump began to grow in her throat. But even that was getting numb.

“Wanta go steady?”

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That brought her up short. Sissy Thompson going steady with

Peewee LeBlanc? The idea was ludicrous. All she’d ever wanted was

for his father to find out about them. No, she’d wanted Bourrée to

see them together, so she could have the delicious pleasure of

watching him squirm as she took his son’s hand and kissed him on

the cheek. That’s all she’d thought about since the day at the

sawmill. She’d tried for a week to get Peewee to ask her to study at

his house, but so far he’d resisted. There was always some stupid

reason why he couldn’t take her over there.

“What do you say?” His face was turning the color of eggplant

destined for the garbage. Sissy reminded herself that his face had

gotten that color fighting over her, so it was incumbent on her to

find some way to let him down easy. She put on her saddest face

and then she saw Bourrée’s pale blue eyes looking at her above all

that bruised and swollen flesh. “I guess that was a pretty dumb

idea, huh?”

“It wasn’t dumb, Peewee. I don’t want you to think that.” Her

voice was soft, comforting. Why did this boy’s suffering touch

her so?

“You mean you might!”

She shrugged. He waited, holding his breath. The left side of his

face was puffing up.

“We’d better find some ice for you right away.”

“Sissy, say you will. Please.”

He was begging her. She’d never had a boy beg her before. It was

not an unpleasant experience.

She saw Parker slam himself into the defensive line and run over

three tackles. She’d never get him back. It was hopeless. The lump

was gone. She was completely numb.

“What do you say, Sissy?”

It didn’t have to be forever, she thought. “You really want to go

steady with me, Peewee?”

“You know it!”

“Would you introduce me to your parents?”

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