Here's the update kittens!
Chapter Seven
“Like a fool I went and stayed too long,
Now I’m wondering if your love is still strong,
Ooh baby here I am; signed, sealed, delivered I’m yours!
Then that time I went and said goodbye,
Now I’m back and not ashamed to cry,
Ooh baby, here I am baby, here I am; signed, sealed, delivered I’m yours!”
The girls sang as loudly as they could, riding down the old road that rarely had any traffic passing through. They weaved around each other, over the center line and back, teasing their friends into swerving every now and again to avoid a small topple over and scraped knees. Chrissy showed off by putting her feet up on the handle bars or taking both her hands off the bars. Teeny wasn’t bothered; after all, she was the one with the radio. As much as she had tried before, the fancy bike riding stuff was something she avoided as it always ended up in blood and tears.
Sam had already abandoned her t-shirt. The midday heat was really getting to her; if she could do without any clothes she would, but she doubted her friends would approve of her new found freedom. She laughed to herself at the thought of ‘Sam the nudist.’ Instead she settled for her bikini top.
They passed the old truck where they had stopped for their first smoke when they were fourteen. It was still in the same condition, which proved how little the road was used, lying there on the side, waiting for passers-by to use it for a sit down after a long walk or a sleep if the car broke down. It was familiar to the five girls and brought a sense of consistency, Tara thought. That was the best thing about this town: it was always the same. She knew that if she left the place to rediscover her freedom away from her family, it would be the same when she returned. In some ways it was a comfort knowing that.
They turned the corner that changed the scenery from miles of wide fields and wooden fences to a little town that could have been a painting. There was a well mowed lawn in the center with an old statue holding some Latin inscription, little shops and a few cars parked around, the town hall, and the much loved library that the girls went to when they needed older information. Their journey to Greenfield was a common one; so many books had been lost in a fire back in The Gaslight Edition that it was their nearest stop.
Usually they would have parked their bikes for an ice cream but today all of them wanted to get to the swimming hole as soon as possible. They rode quickly, turning down the radio, until they had passed the small town.
“Argh! Are we there yet?” Chrissy whined. She knew this trip like the back of her hand but the heat and the time it was taking to get there were driving her crazy.
“Come on, Chrissy, not far to go.” Roberta breathed out; every push on her peddles felt like bricks were pulling her from behind.
Finally the glorious sight of the water hit their eyes, and light shimmered on the surface making it look bluer than ever. They all dropped their bikes and ran for the water, throwing off articles of clothing on the way. Even Chrissy couldn’t miss out this time. As soon as they hit the edge of the sand, relief came over them. They felt the coolness of the swimming hole and had never been so glad to arrive.
“Oh man, I thought we’d never get here,” Tara sighed as she back-paddled further to the middle.
“Mmmm, this is the part of summer I love.” Sam followed behind Tara, dipping her head under the water in an attempt to get the redness of her cheeks to calm down.
Chrissy spun in circles in the water, reveling in being able to relax. Her legs hurt so much, as she hadn’t cycled this far for months. The pain eased in the cool of the water.
The five girls were lying on their backs together near the water. They were taking a short break after splashing around, getting water in their eyes and dunking each other under. Chrissy sat up to wring out her new top; as much as she liked feeling the cool of the water, she hadn’t come with the plan to swim. Now her shirt was creased and had crumbs of sand and soil all the way through. In frustration, she threw it onto the hot ground.
“Truth or dare, Tara?” Chrissy laid back down next to the blonde, knowing it was the perfect time for a bit of gossip.
“Truth… as always.”
“Ok, Tara, do you have a new guy in your life?” Teeny asked eagerly.
Tara looked away, wondering how much truth or detail she would have to give in this answer. She looked across and saw Roberta shift around as well. “No,” she replied simply.
Teeny looked disappointed. She had hoped that Tara would have said yes and then told them all about a big scandal of her and Scott Wormer, and then maybe a big fight between her and Roberta. That would be exciting. Her eyes glinted.
“No one,” Tara confirmed. “Sorry I can’t be more exciting.”
“I’m sure you could…” Roberta taunted, but stayed quiet after that.
“So how far did you go with Scott?” Sam smiled and nudged her playfully.
“Shut up! I’m not answering that!” Roberta punched Sam in the arm; she had already indulged too much when it came to information about her and Scott. They had heard it all already, anyway. “Plus, it wasn’t my turn. Teeny, truth or dare?”
“Truth.” Teeny was distracted, hearing splashing further around the swimming hole.
“When you skipped drama class last term and told us you had a dentist’s appointment, where did you actually go?”
“You can’t ask me that! You already know!”
“Yeah, but we don’t,” Tara said playfully, pointing at herself, Sam and Chrissy. “Come on, spill it,” Tara continued when she saw Teeny’s defeated face.
“Under the stage with Peter Morter!”
Tara, Sam and Chrissy sat up in shock.
“PETER MORTER!” They all yelled at once.
Sam was laughing so hard she could feel tears coming to her eyes. “Are you kidding me? Peter?”
“It’s not what you think, honestly.” Teeny sulked, feeling her cheeks burning. The splashing and laughing was getting louder, making the girls quiet for a second.
“Chrissy, which one?” Tara tapped her friend, realizing that they were still playing.
“Dare, for once.”
“Okay, I have one, but we are all doing it,” Roberta said.
The girls sat up waiting to hear what Roberta had planned. Several minutes later, they were ready.
“Since the last time, they’ve been so overprotective of their clothes,” Chrissy pointed out. It was the height of summer and running away from the Wormers felt like the least desirable thing. Chrissy looked at the water longingly.
“It’s been two years!” Sam replied. She knew that this was an opportunity not to be missed. Now that Roberta was over Scott they could finally go back to taunting the guys. Sam had spent a lot of time obsessively imagining all of the pranks she could pull on the group and now it was time to start acting on them.
Roberta spoke up, pulling Sam out of her trance. “Tara, you go last, ‘cause if they see us, you look the most innocent.”
“What kind of logic is that?” Tara was already annoyed and this just didn’t seem right.
“If we get caught, because you look so innocent they might think you’re just having a walk around the lake.”
“Roberta, you’re dreaming. If someone who had been your arch-neighborhood-nemesis…es was wandering around your clothes you’d be out of that water yelling in nano-seconds.”
But it was too late; Roberta and Sam had already hunched their backs over and were trying to be as stealthy as possible as they went for the pile of clothes. Sighing in defeat, Teeny and Chrissy followed, leaving Tara with no choice but to join them.
Finding the clothes, Roberta noticed that they seemed a little small for the boys, but without hesitation she grabbed a bunch and stood a few feet away, waiting for the rest of them to grab some items and being ready to make a run.
Tara knew how fun this had been when they were fourteen but it seemed a little immature now, or rather, something was holding her back this time. Instead of trusting her instinct, as she knew her friends were waiting, she grabbed the pile of clothes, turned and ran.
“Come on, Tara!” Teeny yelled. Everyone’s eyes widened; Teeny had just advertised to anyone nearby that they were up to something.
“Shit, Teeny! Want to let them know what we’re doing, too?” Roberta whispered angrily. They all turned and started running, dodging the twigs and various plants in front of the path.
Tara was behind. She ducked her head to miss a bush but in doing so failed to see the large rotting wood directly after it, causing her to stumble. She dropped all of the clothes, sighed in frustration and cursed herself for being so clumsy. One by one she picked up the clothes and got ready to get back on her feet again.
“HEY!! What do you think you’re doing?!” A voice was yelling from behind her. In a panic she reached for the last item and suddenly realized what it was: a red bikini top with a small flower printed in the corner.
“Oh, Willow…” She froze with guilt and shock, knowing how much she would regret it if she kept running. How could they have mixed up the Wormers with Willow and her friends? Roberta must have known. With that realization, Tara was filled with anger and sadness. Roberta must be trying to boycott her new relationship with Willow, she thought, but how would she know about it? She shook the thought out of her head as a moment of paranoia.
“Tara! Hurry up now!”
She heard Sam’s panicked but hysterically amused voice. Simultaneously, she heard footsteps getting closer and closer to her. She wanted to stay there and admit defeat, but if she did, it would mean admitting her secret to everyone.
Instinct took a hold of her. Her legs moved on their own will and carried her away from the annoyed complaints behind her. She caught up with the gang in no time at all, but it seemed that the clothless ones behind were also fast runners.
Tara reached the clearing and saw her bike waiting for her. Her friends had jumped on theirs and were caught in a laughing fit; Teeny was swerving all over the road because she was giggling so much, thinking that once again they’d screwed over the Wormers.
Tara finally took charge of her body and stopped herself at the foot of her bike, turning around. In the same place two years before she had seen the boys shivering with cold. In their place were two angry faces. One was a short blonde girl who looked as though she would kick Tara’s behind if she weren’t naked. She was standing behind the rusting tractor which gave her some dignity, if not a whole lot. Next to her was a taller, shaggy-haired guy looking very confused. Tara got the impression that this wasn’t the first time it had happened to him. Next to him were two almost identical younger ginger-haired boys with freckles all over their noses, who couldn’t have been older than twelve. Both of them looked impatient and turned their attention to the girl standing to the left of them at the same time.
“Willow! I want my clothes back.” One of them tugged at Willow’s arm, but she was staring at Tara.
Willow felt her heart sink. She had thought it must have been a mistake. After all, she hadn’t seen them at the pool and they might have just gone for their clothes by accident. But there it was, the truth standing right in front of her, her red bikini top clearly hanging over Tara’s arm. Tara knew it was hers and yet she had kept going.
“I-I um, I-…” she stammered over her words, not knowing what to say. She turned around to Roberta, Chrissy and Teeny standing by their bikes looking rather embarrassed and hoped that they would apologize for her, since it was their idea.
“Hey, we’re sorry. We thought it was a bunch of loser guys that usually hang around here,” Roberta explained.
“Sorry! That’s it? We’re standing NAKED behind a tractor!” the small blonde shot at her.
“Hey, missus, we’re the ones standing here with your clothes, so how about you show us some respect?” Roberta retorted. The blonde had a way of annoying her with every word she said.
“Us? We should show you some respect? What kind of respect are you showing us? And my name is not missus, it’s BUFFY! Okay? BUFFY!”
“Hey… Buff, I’d quite like to get my clothes back, how about you stop aggravating the nice girls holding them?” The dark haired guy turned back to the group of girls, showing a nervous smile.
“G-g-give them their c-clothes,” Tara got out finally. She had been battling with her mouth during the small squabble, trying to say something. She approached Willow slowly, putting out her arm with the clothes dangling over it. Willow didn’t take her eyes off the girl the entire time.
“Thank you…” Willow said quietly. Tara could clearly hear the hurt in Willow’s voice.
“I’m sorry, I really am.” Tara gave the others a small smile and let her hair fall over her eyes again. She was about to turn around and walk away, but as she did so she saw Roberta throwing the clothes over to the other side of the tractor. The anger in Roberta’s face told Tara what she had to do. She was sick of this.
She turned once again to face the poor group that had been unfairly robbed of their dignity and approached them. She went up to Willow so she was close enough for only her to hear, picking up odd socks on the way that had fallen on the grass.
“Willow, I’m sorry,” she whispered, pretending to pass over more items. “We didn’t know it was you, not u-until I was out here and I realized it was your top. I w-wouldn’t have, otherwise.” She wanted to continue but she could feel the tears building up in her eyes. She felt embarrassed and angry altogether. She breathed in, slowly gaining control over her weak tear ducts, waiting for rejection.
Why did I have to screw this up? We were doing so well! Sure, it was only two weeks, but still, it’s been the happiest time of my life… and it’s over. Totally over.
A tear fell down her cheek with that thought; more were about to spill but she was surprised to hear her redhead speak up.
“You’re not lying?” Willow asked.
“No, no, Will. Never, I would never lie to you, it really was an a-accident.” She struggled to get the last word out; she knew she should have trusted her instinct earlier.
“Okay,” Willow replied simply, finishing with a smile.
“Are you sure? I’m sorry if we upset you… really, really so-”
“Tara, come on, we should go,” Sam said, unsure why Tara was taking so long to hand over three socks.
“I'd better...”
“Yeah, I’ll see you… later… right?” Willow whispered to her girl.
“Same time, same place.” Tara gave Willow a smile and a wink before she turned back to her friends, climbed on her bike and left.
after all, its for the readers, enjoyment 
Can't wait to read more. I haven't seen "Now and Then" in forever, but this makes me want to go out and rent the movie again.
Such an irony with the Rosie O'Donnell thing too, as previously mentioned.
you rock my world.
