Tiffany was not amused.

"She can't go on a date! We're leaving for Seattle in the morning," she said, banging the hotel room's door open. "We've got to get packed for that."

"What's there to pack," Luann countered. "We've been living out of our suitcases all along. Aside from that mess in the bathroom where it looks like your make-up kit exploded, we're pretty much already packed."

"He's talked to her for like five minutes then asks her out on a date. You know there's only one kind of guy that does that - pick-up artists!" Tiffany insisted. "He's not interested in her. He just wants to put another notch on his bedpost. Wham! Bang! and if you're lucky a 'Thank you,Ma'am.'"

"She's right here," Luann said.

"He's not like that." Bernice was crying again. Luann took her in her arms and pulled her away from Tiffany. "Don't listen to her," she said, "She's only talking about the kind of men she meets."

"I am n-" Tiffany began but Crystal pulled her away from Luann and Bernice, intending to talk to her quietly, but every step away from the two girls took them closer to the attentive ears of the two guys. She ended up in the middle of the room, equidistant from both groups.

"What's got in to you?" Crystal whispered. "What business is it of yours if Bernice goes out on a date? I mean, have you ever seen her on a date? So let her have her fling. Be happy for someone else for a change."

"It's just so unfair..."

"That Bernice got asked on a date and you didn't? That is so shallow, Tiff. Not everything is about you."

"That's easy for you to say, you've got that moron surfer drooling all over you."

"Skateboard, not surfboard. Pay attention. And he's not a moron and it's none of your business." Even though Crystal had been whispering Knute had pricked up his ears.

She left the blonde standing there and went over to Bernice, whose tears were slowing down. "So what are you going to wear?"

"I don't have anything!" Bernice said through a new flood of tears.

"You didn't bring a single dress along?"

"Luann said to pack lightly so I brought these jeans, a pair of shorts and four tops."

"That won't do. I'm sure one of Tiffany's dresses would work, maybe the yellow one."

"They're my dresses!" Tiffany said. "And - and - and besides I'm a size zero and she's at least a size 6. She'd stretch them all out of shape, even if she could got one on."

Bernice looked to Crystal for help.

"Sorry, kid, my wardrobe runs to miniskirts and hot pants, and I don't think black is your color.

"I'm sure I could whip up something suitable ... if we had a sewing machine," Gunther offered.

Tiffany rolled her eyes. "Which we do not have!"

"Maybe Yolanda has one we could borrow?"

"Agnes!" Luann corrected, "Yolanda's just the name of the hotel."

"And what are you going to use for fabric?" Tiffany asked.

"The curtains!" Knute suggested. "I saw this old TV show where they made a dress from a curtain."

"That was Carol Burnett and I'm not going around with a curtain rob taped to my shoulders," Bernice paused in her crying long enough to answer.

"I'm an idiot," Luann said, turning to the pile of suitcases before Tiffany could crack a comment. She pulled out her suitcase and rummaged through it. "Here it is!" she cried, holding up a roll of blue material.

"Oh, wonderful, now we have fabric but we still don't have a sewing machine," Tiffany said.

"We don't need a sewing machine. This is my emergency travel dress. I forgot I'd brought it along." She shook it out with a snap to reveal a blue dress. "It's knit so I can roll it up and it doesn't wrinkle. It ought to fit just fine. Come on," she grabbed Bernice's arm, "Let's try it on."

She pulled her friend into the bathroom. As she turned around to close the door she found Crystal and Tiffany crowding in behind her. As they pushed in Bernice found herself forced to straddle the toilet. "Somebody's got to leave. There's no room in here," she complained.

"I'll take care of it," Crystal said and a moment later was pushing the boys out of the room. Closing the door she said "Now we can work out here."

Feeling overly conspicuous with three pairs of eyes on her, Bernice took off her T-shirt and jeans and stepped into Luann's dress. They crowded around the full-length mirror mounted on the back of the room's door and scrutinized the effect. Luann was a couple inches taller and twenty pounds heavier than her friend. Where the dress would have ended above Luann's knees, on Bernice the hem fell just below her knees. And where the dress would have stretched over Luann's hips and bust, they hung loosely but not baggily on Bernice. It wasn't the perfect dress for her but Bernice smiled. Finally something was working out right for her!

Bernice hurried back to the bed and slipped out of the dress. "I better take a shower. I don't want to go smelling like a horse." She pulled her suitcase out of the stack against the wall and pulled out fresh underwear.

"You're not going to wear that are you?" Tiffany asked.

"Underwear?" Bernice asked, confused.

"Don't you have anything more - ah - exciting than white?"

"What?"

"If you're going on a date," Tiffany explained, "You've got to dress from the skin out. White panties don't cut it. You want something with flare, color. You know ... sexy. Like these!" Tiffany pulled up her top to show off a yellow lacy bra with red trim.

"I don't have anything like that."

"She doesn't need anything like that!" Luann said. "She's going on a date. An ordinary date. It's not like he's going to see what she's wearing underneath." Taking Bernice's arm she turned her towards the bathroom. "Go on and take you're shower and ignore Miss Mind-Born-in-the-Gutter."

The door had barely closed on the bathroom when Tiffany stalked up to Crystal and hissed, "I thought you were my friend?"

"I am."

"Then why are you helping them?"

"That what girls do."

"He'll just break her heart."

"You've made that abundantly clear. Now either get with the plan or get out of the way."

Tiffany looked at the Goth with narrowed, suspicious eyes. "You've changed. You're turning into one of them."

"I'm not turning into anybody. I am who I always been, but you're making it hard to remain your friend if you keep talking like that." Crystal turned away and picked up her make-up kit from beside the bed. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some work to do."

][

Bernice noticed the changed atmosphere in the hotel room when she came out of the shower. Tiffany was sitting in a corner glowering at Crystal. Luann had pulled a chair into the middle of the room and stood behind it with hair-drier and comb. Crystal was sitting on the foot of the bed next to the chair, her make-up kit spread out before her. Looking at the multitude of blacks and garish purples and greens Bernice stammered "I usually don't wear make-up."

"Don't worry," Crystal smiled, "I can do light." Her heavily raccooned eyes were not reassuring.

][

Bernice was still admiring Crystal's make-up job when the phone rang. Luann pounced on it before it had a chance for a second ring. She listened for a moment then announced, "Your date's downstairs."

Up till then Bernice had thought she was in complete control of her emotions but suddenly felt a queasiness in her stomach and her legs went rubbery. As she waked towards the door she was glad she had opted to wear her regular flats. This was not a time to be practicing wearing heels when her legs were threatening to quit on her.

As she pulled the door open Tiffany suddenly jumped up ran forward and forced a crisp, new twenty dollar bill in her hand. "Never go on a date without cab-fare home," she explained.

"I've got my phone," Bernice said, confused.

"Cash is better. Hide it in your bra in case you lose your purse."

"Ok, she said, stuffing the money down the front of her - Luann's - dress. She was confused by Tiffany's unexpected generosity and advice. The way she had said it sounded like she was speaking from personal experience.

Bernice walked down the hall to the stairs. As she pushed open the door to the lobby she could see Barry leaning on the counter telling to Agnes. He was wearing a corduroy jacket over fresh jeans. He turned around at the sound of the door opening. "Wow!" he said. "You look..." the words trailed off.

"Exquisite! The word is exquisite, you big dummy. Now give her a kiss and stop hogging my desk." Agnes rasped.

"God, you look beautiful," he said, ignoring Agnes. Except he did walk over to where Bernice waited nervously by the stairs down, leaned down and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She was sure he was lying about her being beautiful but the kiss, quick and chaste, seemed sincere.

Barry lead her out to his jeep, a older model that looked well cared for in the parking lot lights. He held the door open and helped her climb up into the seat, which was higher off the ground that she was used to. As he walked around the vehicle she looked for a seatbelt and couldn't find one. The jeep was that old. Looking over as Barry slid in behind the steering wheel she noticed that not only were there no seatbelts there was no central console diving the cabin into driver's side and passenger side. She could ride as close to Barry as she wanted. She was still nervous about being alone with him so she only slide half way across the seat. Even so she was very conscious of his closeness.

He drove a few miles through the small town that lay just outside the the National Park, taking a few turns here and there that had Bernice confused, before pulling into a large parking lot outside a large shed-like building. A sign out front called it the Sequoa Bar and Grill. Below that on a billboard was "Dancing today with Global Warming."

"Barry," Bernice said, worried about having to show her ID, "I'm not 21." She decided not to mention that she wasn't 18 either. One bridge at a time she told herself.

"Don't sweat it," he assured her as he drove around to the back of the building. There was a smaller parking lot there as well as a collection of dumpster's and a back door not covered by a bouncer. He lead her past the smelly garbage cans and through the door into the bar's kitchen. A tattooed man in a greasy apron was scrubbing some pots and pans. He looked up as they came in and smiled. "Hey, Barry," he called, before diving into the soapy water again.

"Bill," Barry nodded back, then said hellos to a Tom, a Manuel, Jose, and Tony. They passed through the service door into the dining room. It was large, semi-dark with tables arranged around the walls, leaving an open area in front of a make-shift stage. Barry went over to the stage and talked to the men setting up their band equipment for a moment, introducing Bernice to them before heading off for a table. "They're good guys," he said, "been playing together about about five years now. Real popular in the area." He picked a table rather well away from the stage, adding "...and they're kind of loud."

They're barely got settled when a waitress appeared. "Hey, Barry," she called, "Start you off with a beer?"

"In deference to my date I think we'll just have a couple of sodas tonight."

"Two colas it is," She turned to Bernice with a smile. "Hi, I'm Amber. I've known Barry all my life so if he gives you any trouble just let me know."

"It's like everyone knows you," Bernice said. She was used to the general anonymity of Pittsville, where people generally did not know your name.

Amber came back with their drinks and took their order for supper. As they waited Barry leaned in close as asked, "so what's the story on your friend and her run-away boyfriend? I'm glad I was able to help today but I didn't get the full story."

So Bernice launched into the drama of Luann and Quill. She had hoped he'd asked about her but maybe that would come later.

"...and then, when we found the Guest Book, his girlfriend has signed it, and added their ages after their names. According to that Quill is, like, twenty-six! What's a twenty-six year old man doing dating a High School Junior?"

Barry sat back, face crimsoning. "Now I feel like a heel for asking you out. I'm twenty-three, not much younger than this Quill guy."

Now it was Bernice's turn to be flustered, unsure how to answer that. Stumblingly she said, "If anyone's at fault, it's me for not telling you how old I am. I knew you were older than me, you couldn't work at the Park if you weren't. But ... but ... it's not like with Quill - you never pretended to be a teen-ager. When you asked me out I knew I would be going out with an older man."

"My dad's an "older man," I'm ... well, you;re right. Still if I had known you were still in high school I wouldn't have asked you out. It just seems wrong. But ... I don't work the Welcome Center's often but when I do it seems like there are tons of giggling girls who are clearly teen-agers. You looked ... older - not old-old but more mature, self-assured, you had "gravitas" - I love that word, it means..."

"I know what it means." Bernice interrupted.

"You would, and that's what I liked about you. I mean, to most of the Rangers here I'm the new kid but I've been around, I've been through college, worked during the summers. I think about stuff a lot. When I saw you I thought ' here's a woman who thinks about stuff a lot, too.' I know it sounds corny but the minute I saw you I thought, "you're pretty, you look smart; I'd be an idiot to just let you walk out the doors..."

Bernice didn't know what to saw about that. No one had ever called her 'pretty' before. She was saved from having to answer by the arrival of their meals.

Afterwards the band started playing and Barry lead her out to the dance floor. He was not much of a dancer, but energetic. She made sure to avoid flailing arms and legs. When the band shifted to some slower songs he reeled her in with his long arms and held her close. Like most of the younger couples on the floor, they shuffled in place, but Bernice, with her head laid on is chest didn't mind. She could hear his heart thumping in his chest and smell a scent of soap, deodorant and, lightly, of sweat. It was marvelous.

The band broke for a break after a while. The lead singer came over to their table and razzed Barry for a bit. After he left Barry looked at his watch and saw it was after 10:00. "I should get you back," he said with evident regret. "You said you were heading out for Seattle in the morning. I'm sure you'll want to rest up before beginning that."

"I won't be driving," Bernice told him. "There's no hurry."

"Great, because there's some place I wanted to show you before you go." He threw some money on the table and lead her back out through the kitchen which, except for the guy operating the dish washer, was empty. They got into his jeep and Barry drove off down a series of narrow roads that climbed the ridge backing the town. He drove along a state highway for part of a mile before pulling off into a scenic look-out. The look-out was long, narrow and occupied with maybe half-a-dozen well spaced out cars. Barry found a spot between two well-spaced cars and pulled up to the edge of the ledge.

"Now comes the make-out," Bernice thought nervously. "He'll pretend to yawn so he had drape his arm around my shoulder, then go in for a kiss, maybe try to grope a little." She wasn't sure about the groping. It seemed needlessly intrusive.

"I love coming up here," Barry was saying. "You can look down and see the whole town laid out before you, then look up and see infinite looking back. It makes me feel so small, and yet connected to everything. That's sort of why I went into conservation. Man - nature - life. I never feel quite so alive then when I'm back-packing through the Park doing bug-counts, tracking animal scat, even picking up the litter from people who have gone off the trails."

Bernice looked out the windshield. Spread across the valley, defined mostly by a variety of night lights was a small village. It was fascinating to see because the lights, hence the village, stopped at discrete limits. She had never seen Pittsville from up high like this, but just driving around it had always seemed like an endless landscape of malls, shopping lots and burger joints.

Her thoughts were interrupted as Barry wrapped an arm around her. ("As expected" she thought, though noting that he had just done it without faking a yawn.) She looked up at him with a smile, placed her hand over his, noting how tiny her hand seemed. There was a momentary shiver at the thought of him getting rough. She would never stand a chance. It didn't seem like something Barry would do but she knew so little about him. what was there to say he didn't have a violent temper.

But he seemed content to just sit next to her and aside from his arm about her, making no other move. H saw staring at the stars with a smile on his face, turning towards her occasionally with an even bigger smile. After a time he shook himself and said, "I should be getting you back," and reached for the ignition.

"There's no hurry," Bernice said, suddenly afraid that this would all there would be. And since he wouldn't, she stretched up and kissed him.

He froze for a second, then leaned down and kissed her back.

][

Bernice was walking on air through the hotel. They had kissed good-night outside the hotel, a kiss that threatened to lead to other things. If only the night-light weren't so bright...

She slide the cardkey into the slot and quietly pushed the door open; closed it behind her. They had left the light on in the bathroom with the door partially shut to act as a night-light. She went in, laid her purse on the counter and looked at herself in the mirror. Did she look any different? Could any one tell from a glance that she was ... different? She couldn't stop smiling, thinking back on her date. She tried to assume her usual glum expression. It wouldn't take.

"So how was your date?" a voice behind her asked. Bernice squeaked with surprise and spun around to find Luann in the doorway. "Tell me everything."

"Were you waiting up for me?" Bernice demanded. Luann shrugged.

"I had a wonderful time," Bernice said as noncommittally as possible. She turned around so she wouldn't have to look at Luann's questioning face and reached up to unzip her borrowed dress. "Barry was the perfect gentleman," she added as the dressed pooled around her ankles.

"Does he plan to return your bra when he's done with it?" a second voice asked. Luann turned to find Tiffany standing behind her. Turning back she found a red-faced Bernice clutching her breasts with her hands, clearly bra-less but she knew Bernice had been wearing one when she's left.

"We couldn't find it after," Bernice confessed in a tiny whisper.

"Oh, ho!" Tiffany leered.

"It wasn't like that!" Bernice said much louder.

"Bernice!" Luann said, if her eye were any wider her eyeballs might have fallen out of their sockets. There was awe in her voice. "You didn't? You did! You are so ... You said you wanted to do something wicked just once in your life, and now you have."

"So our little girl has become a woman. He didn't force you, did he?"

"No! It was my choice." Then fiercely, "I wanted it!"

Bernice picked up her purse and pulled out a twenty and handed it to Tiffany. Here's your money back. I didn't need it." After a moment she added, "Thanks for the thought, though."

Bernice noticed that her pajamas had been thoughtfully piled up on a corner of the counter. She shook out the shirt and pulled it over her naked breasts. "I just want to go to bed, OK. Before we wake anyone else up."

"Too late!" Knute bellowed from the other room.

With a grunt Tiffney turned and left.

"Tomorrow, you, me. Everything," Luann said as she left the bathroom.

"Like hell!" Bernice told the closing door.