Courting

One of the girls from my class was at the corner of the court where I was standing. She wasn't paying attention to the game, in fact it looked more like she was waiting for someone. One foot was resting on a bench, and under the hem of her pleated blue skirt one leg showed much more stocking that was usual for her. I stared thirstily, unable to tear my eyes away, even though I knew I had to focus.

She finally saw me, blinking though her plastic-framed glasses at my agitation.

"Oh, hey," she said indifferently. "Didn't expect you to be on the team. How's the game going?"

I could smell her, being so close, and no girl had ever smelled so much of girl to me. "Um, not bad," I somehow managed to pant.

She'd not bothered to shift her leg. Still the stocking showed. I squirmed.

"Your blushes say otherwise," she teased me.

Once she'd said that, I just knew I had to show her my very best! I started off at once, my back to her, while my face burned red. To think that a girl with stockings on should have teased, while I had little white gym socks on my feet! Little white somethings else too, I then remembered, and flushed anew with shame. I'd never even seen hers, so I didn't know if she still wore white ones like I did!

Later in the game, after I'd simmered down a bit, I dared another look in her direction. Her sister and their two friends had arrived by now and the girls were chatting, not watching the game, all stripy blazers and stockings.

At my first chance I ran back over to that corner, which smelled four times as much as it had before, and there proceeded to fidget pensively in hopes I'd be noticed.

"Oh, it's that boy we see going to and from school," one of the friends at long last remarked.

I flashed the group a quick smile, over my shoulder.

"Knickers in a twist?" one of the others asked. Her sympathetic tone made me indignant.

"Looks like those other boys are doing that for you," said another fondly, although the fondness was all for the away-team, and that made it too much.

"I'm just as good at this game as them!" I burst out. At that moment the half-time whistle sounded with the score very much in the visitors' favour, and I felt the silliest and most defeated I'd ever done in my life.

The four girls, not interested, were wandering off. I flurried from the court after them, hotly.

"I can too be just as good as them!" I repeated in a gasp.

Our cheerleaders were shaking their pom-poms, like girls lazily tickling the agitated boys in the crowd, keeping their rapt observers on a simmer. Panting I finally caught up with my classmates.

"I can too win!" I cried yet again.

The girl I liked most was smiling, and although I'd never seen her smile before, I wasn't absolutely sure yet I liked it! Her sister and their friends wandered off, leaving her with me, eyeing me though her glasses again.

She and I began to meander the other way, along the side of the court...like shy teens on a date, I wondered wildly? Is that suddenly what this was? She heaved a little sigh, and raised both hands to sleek her ponytail. I saw the clean white of her blouse inside that stripy dark blazer, and smelled secrets of the inside of her uniform such as I'd never known.

"We, um, could...!" I blurted all at once.

Another smile, indulgently, while she waited for me to finish. Could I, though? Could I really ask her? It was more than I'd ever done. Did I even dare?

The other team's cheerleaders were younger than ours, as the boys themselves were, and now a gaggle of these cheers bumped between us bouncily in their tight purple. The smell of them only started with their socks! Left speechless and badly flurried, I gawped after their well-filled mini-dresses with "Foxes" emblazoned over little butts, all of which were flicking and bumping cheekily. Why did they have to flaunt like that, when everyone knew they'd only have turned their snubby noses up at a boy me?

My classmate was gone. Suddenly I was glancing all round in a frenzy!

After an infuriating search of the sports hall I found her, just before the second half. She was standing like she'd been before, stocking and all, as I caught breathlessly up.

"So, going to watch me this half?" I demanded.

"You game smells so bad I'm not sure it's going to be worth it," was her slightly airy reply, and I blushed hard.

Back on the court I was almost glad to get away from her! "We're so better at this than you," boasted one of the other team who was near me. From a boy several years below mine, with freckles, that was a bit much!

"You've not won yet," I protested helplessly.

"Got a dramatic comeback stuffed up your panties, then?" he scoffed.

END OF PART ONE