Author's note: This chapter has explicit sexual content, so be warned and enjoy!

The BSC Legacy - Book 1: Brave New World of High School

By: CNJ

PG-13

7: New Charged

Claudia:

Two interesting things happened that first and second week in November under one event related to our getting older. First, that weekend was our monthly sleepover. All of us BSC have a sleepover the first Friday or Saturday of each month. We take turns of whose house it will be at. Last month was Kristy's house; this month it's at Stacey's house. We went to a movie before heading to Stacey's that first Friday in November. We got the usual food and sat. The movie itself was good, but not great. Kristy went to get more food and came back with a candy bar and another coke.
"You'll never guess who I saw making out in the back row!" she whispered.
"Who?" I asked, curiosity peaked.
"Cokie Mason with some guy who looked about twenty." Kristy grinned and the rest of us giggled softly. "I mean, they are all over each other and everything." We'd seen a lot of kids making out lately. Once earlier this week, I saw a couple near the back of the school, making out behind some bushes, trying not to be seen, but some other kids did see them and snickered. It was kind of a funny sight. I thought of Josh and me. We sometimes studied together, even though he's in eighth grade at Stoneybrook Middle and I'm in high school. We'd often sat close as well. I knew Mary Anne and Logan were also getting close as well. Maybe I could lend her a rubber if she needed it. I'd picked some up from the school nurse. I'm so glad today's high schools are waking up to the fact that, yes, teenagers do have sex, have always had sex, and will always have sex and do need info and protection. There are still some adults around who are blind to that and think that we should be kept in the dark about important issues like this and denied protection equipment.

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Kristy:

"I wonder if Cokie's doing it yet," I wondered out loud later that night at Stacey's. We'd played a fast round of the card game Uno and we now lying down on our sleeping bags in a circle on the floor.
"Who knows?" Abby shrugged.
"I guess it's between her and her boyfriend," Mary Anne told us. "It's a very private thing. Logan and I..." she cleared her throat and nervously looked around at us.
"I know how it is," Claudia reached out and put her hand on hers. "It's a hard decision. It's like there's no easy way to tell if you're both ready to go all the way or not."
"It's more than just avoiding pregnancy and VD," Stacey munched on a pretzel, looking thoughtful. "It's more of how you're going to feel afterward, not just the day after, but a year from now."
"Good point," Mary Anne nodded. "I couldn't have sex with someone unless I really had feelings for them."
"Me either," Abby nodded. We were all quiet a minute, thinking about the new changes of high school. Interesting how middle school seems much simpler, yet back then, we thought it was more complex than elementary school. I guess that's a huge part of what growing up entails. I looked around at my friends, who are growing up the same way, yet in different aspects. Our bodies are physically growing; I've noticed I'm getting a bit taller now. And all of us still have acne. All of us senior BSC now have our periods. I smiled softly as I remembered that last summer, Mary Anne was the last of the senior BSC to get her period and had been embarrassed about it. Our two junior members, Jessi and Mallory, who are now in seventh grade, were here for the summer and we had all been talking about periods at our August sleepover. Mary Anne had blurted out something like she did have hers, then went into the bathroom later that night and cried. She finally got hers that last week in August and by her reaction, we knew it was her first and she cried and fessed up. We felt bad about making her feel awkward and apologized to her. Two more years and it'll be Mal and Jessi's turns, I thought as our conversation moved on to other things.

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Mary Anne:

I don't know if it's because we're becoming more aware of sex in general with our getting older or if it's us kids becoming more in tune sexually, but at least three times the following week, I couples petting in quiet corners of hallways or back behind the high school near the trash dumpsters. The trash area stinks of course, so hardly anyone wants to go back there unless they want privacy. Some kids go back there for a smoke, but some go back there for a quick make-out session if no one's having a smoke back there. The Beacon adjourned early that Thursday and so did Visions so after Claudia and I walked home, Logan came over. Just as he got there, it started to rain really hard, so we ran into the barn, getting soaked anyway. We took off our wet jackets and sank down into the hugest pile of hay just inside the door.
"Thank God for this barn," Logan said softly.
"Yeah..." I whispered, listening to the pleasant patting of rain on the barn roof. It's not really adjacent to our old farmhouse, but it's used for things like bicycles and storage for stuff we don't use often. Dawn used to scare me with stories of how our house was haunted. I still sometimes shiver thinking about it, especially the secret passage right outside her bedroom...the room she uses when she visits from California, where she lives with her dad and stepmom. "The leaves are almost gone from the trees now...did you notice it's like a huge carpet on the ground of fall colors...isn't it pretty?"
"Yeah..." Logan nodded. "In Kentucky, we never had these bright colors...they would fall off in late November and would be duller colors. And it never was cold this early...it often stayed warm until Thanksgiving, sometimes into December."
"Dawn called last week," I told him. "It's similar out there in the Southwest...their leaves change, but it's more like a burnt orange and brown. She says it's still in the high sixties, low seventies out there." We continued whispering little things back and forth, our bodies leaning closer and closer in the hay...then we slowly stroked each other and I started feeling that swell feeling again. We kissed several times, then longer kisses came, almost merging our lips and tongues, our hands in our shirts. Oh, God, he's becoming a man, I realized, a fresh tingle running through me. And I'm getting closer to being a woman! I don't know how long we petted like that before laying back again, panting.
"Are ready for...?" Logan whispered.
"I...don't think so," I whispered. "Not physically; we don't have protection. You don't have...?"
"No..." Logan shook his head. "We'd better not take things further until we're sure."
"Yeah..." I agreed. I, for one, much as I love babies, was not anywhere near ready to have one or even deal with pregnancy. And I knew how strict Logan's parents are, especially his dad. Oh, boy, would his dad kill him if he even suspected we were doing this! His parents don't even let us in his bedroom; they insist that we stay in the living room. It's interesting, because my dad used to be on the strict side before he married Sharon, but now he's loosened up and is treating me more like my age. I smiled wryly as I remembered up until midway through seventh grade, he used to make me wear my hair in these braids. We lay there, whispering things back and forth to each other for a while longer. Sex was still on our minds, but we knew we weren't ready to go all the way yet, even if we had protection. Logan told me that he along with his family were going to Kentucky to visit relatives for Thanksgiving.
"Dawn's coming here for Thanksgiving," I whispered. "So are Granny and Pop-pop." Granny and Pop-pop are Sharon's parents. "I hope maybe Grandma Baker can come." I really did. I love her so much. When my mom died back in my infancy, I lived with her and my grandfather in Iowa until I was almost two. Then Dad came to bring me back to Connecticut and there was a fight between them and I suspect it was painful for Grandma to give me up. They didn't speak again until I was almost thirteen. Grandpa then died and Grandma wanted to see me again, so I went out there and I'm so glad we renewed our bond. Grandma is very sensitive like me. I smiled as I remembered that we both did a lot of crying during that visit.
"It's getting late..." Logan whispered, sitting up suddenly.
"Wha...?"
"It's getting late and I have to get home," Logan told me, rebuttoning his shirt.
"Yeah..." I pulled my blouse back down. I gave him one last kiss, watched him leave, then lay back down in the hay, still feeling rather dreamy. My heart was still racing a little, so I gave it time to calm down before finally hauling myself out of the hay and going into the house. It was still drizzling, but I didn't mind, getting wet again. I hung up my jacket, then decided to start dinner for Sharon and Dad since they wouldn't be home for another half hour. I popped a vegetarian lasagna in the microwave for Sharon, the put together a rice and meat mix for Dad and me. As the food warmed, I peered out at the last of the fall foliage. What a beautiful sight, I thought. The leaves on the ground looked like a huge shiny, multicolored carpet in the rain.

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"You look like you're feeling better from last week, honey," Dad told me as we ate a while later.
"Yeah, I am feeling better," I knew he was referring to last week's fight I had with Ms. Brauman. I still felt a twinge of shame and pain seeing that C- on my report card earlier this week. Almost all A's, one B, then that awful C-. That one bad grade stood out like a black mark on an otherwise clean record.
"Thanks for starting dinner for us," Sharon stroked my back. We ate in companionable silence for a while, then Dad and Sharon talked about their work and things going on in the world. I half-listened until Dad mentioned a case in Wisconsin that he'd read about where a teenager was in a court battle over whether her parents had the "right" to know whether she was sexually active.
"I'd hope that she would feel free to come to her parents at her own free will," Dad went on. "I just don't think it's a good idea for a teenager to be forced into telling her parents everything. That just makes them become sneakier."
"Hey, that's right," I blurted out.
"I agree," Sharon told us. They looked over at me a minute, then Sharon asked, "Mary Anne...do you feel free to talk to us about personal things?"
I thought about that for a long minute. I think I did. "I do, I guess," I nodded. "You guys are understanding and supportive." I remembered last year how hard it had been for Dad to let me go see Grandma and how understanding he was about me wanting to know more about my natural mother, even thought it was painful for him. "You were great about me and Grandma seeing each other again." I knew a lot of parents wouldn't be. Some parents would have flat out refused to let the kids see their relative. Maybe Logan's dad... "I wonder about Logan's parents, though."
"Logan..." Sharon's brows drew together in a puzzled frown as she and Dad got up to make coffee for themselves.
"Logan came over and we lay in the barn for a while..." I thought over this afternoon that had taken us farther than we'd ever been. "We got pretty far physically," I confessed.
"Did you have actual sex?" Sharon asked. It was matter-of-fact, not shocked or anything like I know some parents get at the thought of their kids' budding sexuality.
"No, but we came kind of close," I told them as they sat. "We didn't have any protection and I think both of us knew we weren't ready to cope yet with the emotional impact of actual sex yet, so we're holding off. And Logan's parents, well you know how they are, especially his dad. He'd kill us both if we did it and he found out."
"He would," Dad sipped his coffee. "I think Logan's family is from a very conservative, almost religious community in the south, so that's where it stems from. And you're right to think over the consequences, not only preventing pregnancy and all, but the psychological and how his parents would react." He reached over and stroked my arm. "You both showed maturity."
"You know, you can come to us any time you have questions," Sharon said as we munched on cookies.
"And we won't lecture, judge, accuse, or criticize," Dad added. We all laughed a little. I felt lucky to have these two as my parents.

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Claudia:

"I think some parents make a huge deal over their kids' sexuality and act like it's some awful shameful thing," Kristy told us at Friday's BSC meeting between calls.
"A lot of it is movies," Stacey put in.
"Movies?" Abby asked and we all looked at her, puzzled. "Movie producers are the most open about showing couples having sex."
"What I mean is that whenever it's teens doing it, there's sometimes a scene where the parents catch them and start screaming bloody murder like the teenagers committed some awful crime or something."
"Yeah..." I nodded. She did have a point. "And of course a lot of parents in real life react that way."
"That's part of why I put off doing it with Logan," Mary Anne said softly, her cheeks slightly red. "I know what his parents, especially his dad is like. His dad doesn't care for me as it is and I just shake to think about his reaction if he ever found out that we'd even petted, let alone think of having sex."
"Part of it stems from the fear that we'd ruin our lives by getting pregnant," Stacey added.
"Speaking of pregnancy," Abby put in. "You know what pisses me to no end? When some parents have a double standard. They overreact to a daughter's sex life, yet don't bring it up with a son. Sure, we girls are the ones who get pregnant, but who is halfway responsible?"
"A lot of it is sexist attitudes," Mary Anne told us. "Some people still feel threatened by female sexuality which represents freedom for women and independence from men. Some rigid backwards thinkers can't deal with that."
"Yeah..." I nodded. Just then, the phone rang and we took a call from the Hsus. Mary Anne was free Saturday afternoon, so she took the job.
"It's hard to believe some people are so backwards that they can't think of women being competent," Stacey put in.
"We're proving them wrong," Abby grinned. "I'll never forget how you saved Timmy Hsu's life last summer, Mary Anne."
"Thanks," Mary Anne blushed as she recorded the job in her secretary's notebook. Last June, we'd taken a first aid course and Mary Anne had been scared nearly out of her mind. But when she and Dawn were babysitting by the pool and Timmy was drowning, Mary Anne had plunged in, pulled him out and given him CPR. Without her heroic action, he would have died.
"They'll be extinct soon," Abby said.
"What will?" I asked.
"The dinosaurs who think of women as inferior." We all laughed at that, then another call came. Yeah, bit by bit we were moving forward.